


The Hunt

by buslimpan



Category: McHanzo - Fandom, Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Some Fluff, a little bit of body horror in the last two chapters, slight supernatrual au, some fights, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 21:33:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15782529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buslimpan/pseuds/buslimpan
Summary: Jesse got a new case to work of tracking down an illegal hunter in Asia. He was not expecting to end up working with the hunter or the trip around the continent.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been written for the 2018 McHanzo Reverse Bang! It was inspired by the wonderful art corvidfightclub has done! They have been very wonderful to work with <3 You can find them and their fics here on ao3 or on tumblr: http://corvidfightclub.tumblr.com/ go and check them out! :D And here you can find the wonderful art I got inspired by: http://corvidfightclub.tumblr.com/post/177358390430/pic-i-did-for-mcbigbang-and-buslimpan-s-rad

“Officer! I swear, I’m not making things up!” The man looked stressed, and in the very least frustrated with the whole situation. Jesse didn’t pity him.

“That man,” a finger pointed at him, “just shot someone! Point blank! Killing them! This was a straight up murder!” Jesse didn’t pity him at all. The slight headache he had in the morning was on the verge of turning into a migraine with the man’s screaming and protesting. The police officer looked just as tired Jesse felt.

“Sir. We have already searched the area, and there are no indication on any type of crime. Especially not that kind of crime.”

“Why aren’t you arresting him? This is not proper protocol! I demand-” Jesse pinched the bridge of his nose as his head throbbed.

“I apologize, Mr. Morricone. It would seem that the man is rather intoxicated.” Jesse turned his focus to the police officer by his side and gave her a tired smile.

“Nah, it’s fine. A good samaritan, albeit a bit drunk. Can’t deny a man a few drinks, now can you?” He waved a hand towards the intoxicated man who was yelling up a storm at the other police officer. “Good spirit.”

“But he was bothering you. Are you sure you don’t want to file a complaint?”

Jesse shook his head. “It’s fine. No harm done, no? Well, except for you getting dragged out here and into this mess.”

“It’s our job. If this stuff didn’t happen we would be out of work,” she said with a weak chuckle. Jesse’s smile turned into a grin and he tipped his hat towards her.

“Glad to be of service then.” The officer shook her head but an easier smile were on her lips.

“Very well. I wish you a good day, Mr. Morricone. If you excuse me, we need to escort a drunk person back to station where he can sleep it off,” she said and went over to rescue her partner. Jesse watched as the man was escorted away under protest and felt some tension disappear from his shoulders as they finally drove away.

“Fuckin’ hell!” He turned sharply around and ran into the alley nearby. “Don’t be gone, don’t be gone, don’t be gone!” He scanned the ground quickly and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the ash pile was still there. He dug in his pockets for a bag and shoveled the ashes into it.

“Fuckin’ piece of shit. Fuckin’ civilians. Could’ve cost me the whole damn job,” he grumbled and he rose up and dusted off his hand. He grimaced at the gray handprint it left and rubbed at it as he started to look behind the nearby dumpster. He grinned wide as he found Peacekeeper.

“There you are. Come here, Darlin’.” Soon the gun were secured in its hidden holster and Jesse were on his way to his hotel.

  
  


Simply entering his room felt like heaven to Jesse’s pounding head. The coolness and silence made it easier to not simply fall into bed as soon as he got there. Muttering to himself, he dug in his bag until he found some pain killers and swallowed them dry. Some semi-clean clothes and quick shower later, he crashed into the bed, intent on sleeping the last hours of the day away.

The vibrations coming from the night table didn’t agree with him. He let out a groan and made no movement to grab it. It stopped after a while, only to start up again.

“For fucks sake,” he grumbled and grabbed the phone. Reyes. Go figure.

“What you want, boss?”

“ _ I need you to come to headquarters in Kolkata, India. _ ”

Jesse furrowed his eyebrows. “Wha-? Why India? You know I’m in the US right now, right?”

“ _ Yes, I’m very well aware. You are trying to bring in the body of the so-called evening vampire. Daniel are gonna take it over from you, you have a new case. _ ”

“Uh, about that…” The sigh from the other side made Jesse chuckle sheepishly.

“I promise it ain’t as bad as you think. Well. Almost. See, I found the guy, and got him down too. But there were apparently this drunk muggle that saw me shoot the fella and he decided to be a good citizen ‘cause he called the cops on me. Had to uh, ‘dispose’ of the body. Anyway, I was lucky enough that the cops couldn’t find the body and that the man was drunk. Cops didn’t believe him and took him to the station instead of me.”

“ _ Jesse, we needed his body whole, not in broken down to ashes. But it doesn’t matter now, I suppose. Please at least tell me that you got his ashes. _ ”

He sat up and let out an offended noise. “Of course I did! I ain’t dumb, Gabe. What do you take me for? Some kind of rookie?”

“ _ Just checking. Drop the ashes off at the closest headquarters and get your ass over here. Check in with Lena, she should be able to get you a flight ticket asap. _ ”

“Aw, no private jet? Would’ve been a lot faster that way. What’s the case anyway?”

“ _ They don’t really want to share many details. They just told me they needed our best tracker. _ ”

“And you thought of me? I’m flattered!”

“ _ You were my best student, I’m sure you will help them out. Now get moving. _ ”

“Do you need me to get there now, or can I sleep first? Got a nasty headache. And it’s almost night.”

“ _ We need you now. You can sleep on the plane, you’ve done that before. _ ”

“Aw, come on now,” he whined but moved out of bed anyway.

“ _ Sorry, Jesse, but it isn’t time for that. _ ”

He tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder as he reached for the trousers and started getting dressed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m coming, don’t you worry. See you in India, boss.”

“ _ Safe travel, _ ” Gabriel said before disconnecting. Jesse sighed and dropped the phone onto the bed, grabbing his discarded stuff and putting it into his duffle bag. After making sure he hadn’t forgetting anything, he checked out of the hotel and got on the bus to the next town where the headquarters was. Settling down in his seat, he prepared himself for many hours of traveling.


	2. Chapter 2

The airport was bustling with people. Walking to and from, some even running to get on time wherever they needed to go. Jesse watched from his seat on the bench, not trying to bother to understand what was being said and ignore the few english words that popped up here and there.

He was scanning the crowd, his leg bouncing in a fruitless attempt to burn off the energy gathering in body. He closed his eyes, forced his leg to stop and took a deep breath. With a roll of his shoulders, he picked up a cigar and his lighter. Simply breathing in the smoke eased his nerves and his back hit the backrest with a heavy thud. Now more at ease, he got back to scanning the crowd.

The cigar was almost gone when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Putting the remaining cigar out under his foot, he rose up and walked to his boss.

“Hey, Gabe, took your sweet time gettin’ here,” he said as they settled into a comfortable walk.

“You should’ve only been here for an hour. Tops. It isn’t my fault traffic is awful around here,” Gabriel said with a shrug. Jesse let out a huff.

“Right. Enough time for me to get wonderin’. I haven’t even had time to research what I’m supposed to be trackin’ since, you know, I don’t have any details.”

“You’ll get them when we get to HQ here. Wasn’t told much either beside they needed some really good trackers. So Jack decided to send the best we got. We’ll meet up with the substitute Master, and we’ll see where we go from there.”

The sound of cars honking soon became overwhelming for a casual talk and Jesse took off his hat and fanned himself with it. He had to resist the temptation to stuck his tongue out at Gabriel when he saw the other man’s smirk. He shook his head and put the hat back on.

He felt a nudge in his arm and when he looked at Gabriel, he nodded towards a taxi that was by the side of the road. As they approached the car, the driver came out and opened the trunk. Jesse smiled at him and tipped his hat. “Thank you kindly,” he said and put his duffle bag in it. The man nodded and slammed the trunk shut before heading to the driver’s seat again. When they were seated, the driver took off without a word.

“So, how did the hunt go?”

Jesse glanced at the driver and met his eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Relax, I’m in the same organization. This is just my dayjob,” he said with a wave of his hand.

“It checks out. Ms. Vaswani sent his profile to me to show who was gonna pick us up. Now, how did the hunt go?”

Jesse gave the driver a doubtful look before he turned properly to Gabriel. “Well, there’s not much else to tell you. Except for the dramatic end of it, the hunt was pretty ordinary.” He shifted in his seat and turned his eyes to the outside, but didn’t really look at the buildings they passed. “Well, there was this odd thing though. Got hold of one of his victims. Couldn’t find any puncture wounds on them and couldn’t see any other reason of death.”

“How could you be sure it was the vampire then?”

“Saw him fuckin’ drag the victim into the room, but I was too late to save them. Sent the body to the local morgue and sent a message to Angela so she could go and investigate the body. Haven’t heard from her though.”

“Hm. Well then. Nothing more we can do about it now. Let’s focus on this hunt instead. Mr. Basu, has Ms. Vaswani said anything about this?”

Mr. Basu shook his head before motioning to the glovebox. “She wanted you to look at the pad that’s in there. We’re about an hour away from the HQ, so feel free to read through it. Or rest if you will, Ms. Vaswani wants you to work immediately when you get there.”

Jesse turned away from the window and leaned forward. “You know why she wanted foreigners to work with this case?”

“We do have Hunters, but we are way more focused on research and how technology and the modern times affects the supernatural side of the world. So, we are not as equipped as you. And you have a high reputation of succeeding in finding your targets.”

Jesse hummed and leaned back in his seat, tapping a finger against his knee. “I’m gonna rest for a bit. Poke me when we’re there,” he said and pulled his hat over his eyes. He heard Gabriel make a sound of acknowledgement and then some soft tunes from the radio. The soft rumbling of the engine and motion of the car made it easier to relax into seat. He heard Gabriel mumble something to Mr. Basu but didn’t hear the replay as he had already drifted off.

  
  


A hand shaking his shoulder was what woke him up. He groggily straightened up and rubbed his eyes.

“Come on, Jesse, we’re here,” Gabriel said as he opened the door and got out. Jesse shook his head to clear the last fogginess and stretched out his arms in front of him. A loud  _ pop _ came from his back and he could hear how Gabriel shivered.

“Don’t do that. Ever. Again,” he said warningly and Jesse shot him a big grin. He reached for his hat that had fallen off before he got out of the car.

Just as he got out, his duffle bag was thrown at him. He caught it and kept it close to him. “Hey! Be careful with that! I keep my valuables in that!”

“Like your belt buckles?” Jesse let out an offended noise and stuck out his tongue. Gabriel began laughing as he followed Mr. Basu. Jesse huffed and followed after them.

The building was impressive. It looked like a normal office building, with a lot of windows, but even from the outside Jesse could feel the protective charms and spells humming. He glanced at Gabriel. His grip on the bag made his knuckles pale and his shoulders were tense. He let out a sigh and nudged Gabriel with his elbow. When no reaction came, he elbowed him harder. Gabriel flinched and shot a look at Jesse.

“You ok, boss?” He tilted his head and gave a nod towards the entrance, which Mr. Basu was standing by and looked curiously at them. Gabriel shook his head, rolled his shoulders and eased his grip on the bag a little.

“This place reeks of Order. Got a talisman that should protect me from the worst of it, but the visit won’t be comfortable.”

“Well, let’s do it quick then.” He stepped towards the entrance and was let in without hesitation. He swept his eyes over the room, taking in the activity there. It looked like a normal entrance to an office and if Jesse hadn't known that they were a part of Overwatch or felt the charms, he wouldn't had been able to guess it. The people lingered around and about kept the tone down, but he could see looks being thrown towards them.

"If you follow me, I'll guide you to the room where Ms. Vaswani will meet up with you," Mr. Basu said as he passed Jesse. He nodded and glanced behind him at Gabriel. The man was standing and while his body seemed tense, it looked like it wasn't paralyzing.

Gabriel caught his eye and gave him a grin before he passed Jesse. Jesse shook his head and followed after them.

After a quick ride with an elevator and a longer walk through a corridor, they were let into a room before Mr. Basu disappeared with a promise of bringing Ms. Vaswani to them.

"Well, this certainly is a fancy place," Jesse commented as he inspected the room. It didn't feel as heavy with charms and spells like the rest of the building, but after a quick search it showed it was probably because those had been removed. The room itself was a small meeting room, Jesse counted to ten chairs around the table and a holographic projector was in the middle of the table.

"They don't only work for Overwatch, they also have departments of biology and Fish and Wildlife. Their government gives them a lot of money, beside Overwatch." Jesse turned towards Gabriel and watched as he slumped down into a chair and relaxed a bit. "It's easier for them to hide in plain sight like that."

"That's good and all for them, but ain't that risky? I mean, havin’ a muggle organization so close?" Jesse asked and rubbed his beard. Smoke slowly rose from Gabriel's shoulders and he watched it trickle upwards.

"That's something you got to ask them. And stop worrying, I'm fine. Just need to relax for a bit," Gabriel said and waved his hand in a dismissive motion.

"Hmph. Well, excuse me worryin’ about the spells being too strong around here. This place has more protection than a catholic cathedral in Rome," he said and bit the inside of his cheek. He was tempted to take out a cigar but he didn't know if they allowed smoking inside. Instead, he searched his pockets for a toothpick or a chewing gum.

"Even if I didn't have the talisman, this place wouldn't kill me, Jesse. I'm not that weak, you know," Gabriel said with a chuckle. Jesse shook his head and grinned when he found a very well chewed toothpick. He put it into his mouth and started to chew.

"You really should take Angela's advice. Go and get some nicotine chewing gum and stop smoking. That would make it easier for you to sneak up on the things you hunt."

"Hey now, now you're just insultin' me!"

Gabriel smirked and opened his mouth to retort back, but the door opened and drew Jesse's attention to it. In walked a woman that Jesse even wasn't sure that was human. She looked the part, with her business suit and carefully styled hair, but something in her deamour rubbed him the wrong way. Her eyes swept over the two of them and Jesse had to repress a shudder. It felt like she could see past their skin and into their souls and Jesse wouldn't be surprised if she actually could.

Gabriel cleared his throat and as he rose up, smoke fell heavily towards the ground before it slowly drifted upwards.

"Ms. Vaswani, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Gabriel Reyes, commander of the US Hunting Department," he said and extended a hand to her. She glanced at the hand and gave him a stiff smile.

"Pleasure to make you acquaintance, Mr. Reyes, but you have to pardon me. I don't shake hands with creatures of Chaos," she said and bowed instead. Gabriel dropped his hand and bowed back.

"It's fine. And understandable. I appreciate that you took the time to create a room without much protection the very least," he said after he straightened up. Ms. Vaswani nodded and turned towards Jesse. Jesse straightened up slightly as she eyed him.

"Jesse McCree, at your service, ma'am," he said and tipped his hat together with his best charming smile. She bowed to him in return.

"I'm Satya Vaswani. I'm the temporary Master of this region. Take a seat, we have a lot to discuss."

The three of the took a seat and Ms. Vaswani started up the holographic projector.

"So. I've called you here because we have an illegal hunter on the loose. We have found out someone has hunted Aralez. They are endangered and hunting them is a very serious crime. I have sent some of my people to investigate-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Aralez? What's that?" Jesse questioned as he looked at the holograph. The picture showed a creature that looked like a dog with wings.

"Ah. It seems to have escaped my memory that you are not versed on what kind of creatures live here. Aralez is a creature that have healing capacity. They live on mount Massis and are rather shy creatures. The legend says that they can raise the dead if they lick the wounds that killed the person. Naturally, it's more complex than that. But due to this reason, they are a protected species," she explained and tapped her finger against the table. "We are keeping track on how many that are alive just in case of illegal hunting. Normally, we are able to track the hunters on our own. But this one seems too extraordinary at hiding their presence. We need help as we fear that they will return to hunt if we don't catch them soon."

Jesse hummed and leaned back in his seat. "That sounds like an interestin' case."

"Certainly. Ms. Vaswani, do you have any clues that we can go by? Any information we can get will help," Gabriel said as he reached for the projector and started to slide between the holographs.

"I was coming to that before I got interrupted," she said and looked straight at Jesse. Jesse shrugged and looked at the shifting holographs.

"The hunter doesn't leave many impressions of them, neither on the physical plane or otherwise. I sent some of my people to investigate when the lifeforce of one of the Aralez we were keeping track of disappeared. At first we simply thought one of them died from old age, but you never know. When they came to the site, the dead Aralez was found dissected. Skillfully done, but only some parts were removed."

"Only some parts?"

"Yes. It seemed like the hunter was very careful to take so much of the tongue they could get. Some hair was missing too, and some intestines. But other than that, its body are still there. Other times when we've dealt with hunters, they've taken the whole body seeing that Aralez are not bigger than a normal dog."

"Huh. That's interesting," Gabriel mumbled as he looked at pictures of the corpse. "What would they need those parts for? If it were for selling, then they would've taken the whole body."

"Yes. We are wondering that too. We believe it's for some type of ritual, but we don't know more than that," Ms. Vaswani said and leaned back into her seat, staring at the corpse. Jesse looked between her and Gabriel before his eyes landed on the picture too. He chewed on the toothpick in thought and barely listened to Ms. Vaswani continuing explaining about the area they found the corpse in.

"Do you have anything on the hunter? You said that they didn't leave any impressions, so wouldn't that mean they know magic? And that type of magic would mean that they are some kind of magician?" he asked and focused back on the people in the room. Ms. Vaswani looked annoyed at being interrupted but reached over the the holograph and flicked through the pictures until they came to a close up of what appeared the killing blow.

"This is the wound killed the Aralez. We have examined the body and it's a clean kill. One single shot. If you want to examine the body yourself, I'll have you escorted to the cooler room in the basement afterwards. And no, while you do need to be proficient in magic to hide your tracks like this, you don't need to be a magician," she said and turned towards Jesse and gave him a look. "If you don't have patience to listen to what I have to say, Mr. McCree, then I suggest that you go and investigate the body."

Jesse felt the heat flood to his ears and he cleared his throat. "I, uh, I apologize, Ms. Vaswani. Ain't my intention to be rude. Please go on."

She gave him a critical eye but turned back to the holographs  Gabriel caught his eye and grinned at him. Jesse gave him an one shoulder shrug before he focused on what Ms. Vaswani was talking about.

  
  


It took one hour to properly go through all of the information Ms. Vaswani had and see what they had to work with. It took another hour for Jesse to investigate the Aralez's corpse while Gabriel interrogated some of the people who had been on the scene. When they got to the room they had been given, Jesse all but collapsed face first into his bed.

Gabriel let out a huff of laughter and Jesse gave him the finger.

"Aw, come on, Jesse. It wasn't that bad," he said and Jesse heard how he sat down on the other bed.

"Fuck off, Gabe. I couldn't sleep on the plane and the nap in the cab was too short. Let me die until tomorrow."

"Stay awake a little while longer, Jesse. We need to figure out what we are gonna do from here. And, you can't sleep in those clothes."

"You ain't my dad."

"No, but I am your boss. And right now we need to work."

Jesse sighed and forced himself to sit up. He threw a glare at Gabriel, but he just looked amused. "So. Got any plans?"

"First, tell me what you learned from the body."

Jesse closed his eyes and recounted what he had seen. "It was cut open and dissected very well, but I do hesitate to say that it's done by a professional. The coroner showed me an arrowhead that she found in the body. The kill was clean, almost more precise than a sniper bullet. It has traces of magic in it, we should be able to trace it." He opened his eyes and took out his phone. He opened it and quickly looked through the photos before he threw it over to Gabriel. "And I found something that looked like burn marks of something. But I'm not sure what."

Gabriel looked at the photos for a long time. He scrunched up his face in thought before he looked up at Jesse. "Those look like teeth marks."

"Yeah, but they haven't punctured the skin of the Aralez. And what kind of creature would have those teeth? So I'm not sure what those are."

Gabriel hummed in thought as he handed back the phone. “Not sure either. But we can keep an eye out for that, and see if it pops up again. Not exactly common.”

Jesse dumped the phone on the night table and dragged a hand over his face. “Until then, I’m gonna try and get in touch with Ana or Fareeha and see if they can track the traces of magic from the corpse.”

“Good thinking, but they can’t do much from Egypt. They are investigating a murder that’s believed to involve a living mummy.”

“Damn. Right, forgot about that.”

“Go and check with Ms. Vaswani’s people. They should be able to help.”

Jesse watched as Gabriel pulled out a pad and started tapping on it. The silence grew as he continued tapping at it, seemingly completely focused on it.

"And what about you?" Jesse questioned after a few minutes. He was tired and just wanted to sleep.

Gabriel glanced at him before he put the pad down. "Right. Was just messaging Ms. Vaswani about it and a few other things. I'm gonna go to the mountain where they found the corpse. See if there are any traces there that they missed."

"I doubt it. I mean, they seem to have been very thorough with it." He rose up from his seat and went to his duffle bag and started to look through it.

"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked as Jesse started to mutter to himself.

"Tryin' to find my cigars. I'm gonna need a smoke if we're gonna take much longer," he grumbled and let out a triumphant sound when he found them. He went to the window with his cigars and light in hand and let out a few curses when the window didn't want to cooperate. He threw a glare at Gabriel when he started to laugh. Gabriel shook his head at him, a grin on his face and went over to help Jesse with the window.

"Thanks," Jesse said and light a cigar. He took a drag of it and held the smoke in his mouth. With a satisfied sigh, he let out the smoke and watched it drift upwards for a few seconds. He turned towards Gabriel and held out the package of cigars. "Want one?"

Wordlessly Gabriel grabbed one and nodded when Jesse gave him the lighter. They stood side by side as they smoked for a bit.

"So," Jesse began cautiously, "I gotta ask. Ms. Vaswani. She ain't human, is she?"

Gabriel let out a low chuckle, but Jesse couldn't avoid noticing the tense undertone of it. "She's as much human as I. Just on the opposite of the balance spectrum."

"So she's a vessel of Order then? No wonder that placed reeked of it."

"Yes. I knew this before I got here, and she knew I would come. She's very good at what she does," he said with a shrug.

Jesse let out a hum and took another drag of the cigar.

"Now. Let's continue," Gabriel said and began to tell Jesse about what he had learned from the witnesses. Jesse listened and came with ideas in their next course of action as he watched the smoke slowly drift upwards and into the nightair. He couldn't shake off the feeling that this would be one of his most interesting hunts.


	3. Chapter 3

The market was bustling with activity considering the size of the town. People talking happily to each other while arguing about the pricing on certain vegetables or things that were being sold. Jesse could spot a tourist here and there, but it was not overcrowded. Jesse pulled the serape closer to him as a colder wind went through the streets. He stopped by a stand and looked at the charms that were being sold.

"Those will bring good fortune, especially if you bring them to the temple." Jesse looked up at the seller that must've seen him walking towards it. Jesse gave her a smile and tipped his hat at her.

"They are very pretty, ma'am. How do I get to the temple?" he asked as he picked a charm up and inspected it. He couldn't sense if there was any magic in it at all and he wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. He glanced at the woman who seemed to be regarding him. She gave him a smile when she saw that he had caught her looking.

"If you follow the street to the end, take a left by the mochi store. It will look like a regular passage, but look out for small, blue cloths hanging from the roofs. They will lead you to the temple," she said and drew in the air. Jesse hummed and nodded, and started to look through his pockets for his wallet.

"You know, it's not often people dressed as cowboys travel through here. Not many cowboys that look like that this day and age," she said as he handed her the yuan needed for the charm.

Jesse chuckled as he put away the wallet and the charm. "Perhaps not, but I like it. It's my style, you know?"

Her smile grew. "I'm sure you would look stunning in other clothes too."

"Oh, I'm certain of it," he said and tipped his hat at her. "Now if you excuse me, I need to move on." He felt a little bad when he saw her smile turn into a professional one, it didn't suit her, but he didn't like where it was going. And it looked like she couldn't give him any clues on the traces of the magic he had found in the arrowhead.

"Yes, of course. I wish you a good evening and a good travel, sir," she said and turned towards two people approaching her stand. Jesse wished her a good day and left her to tend to her customers.

He continued down the market, stopping by different stand and making small talk with the sellers, until he reached the end of the street. He looked around for the shop the charm seller talked about, but only found it when he asked around for it. Jesse was tempted to visit it, but he had spent enough time lingering around the market and he needed to visit the temple. He entered the street and soon enough he found the blue cloths that blew in the wind. He followed them through the town and buildings slowly became more and more sparse as he slowly came closer to the edge of it. He looked around him but there weren’t many people outside. He took out a cigar and lit it, watching the smoke as it drifted upwards.

The sound of heavy and hurried footfalls made Jesse focus back on the street ahead of him. He couldn't see anyone so his hand slowly slid over to his hidden holster and carefully gripped the handle of his gun. He glanced around him, trying to see from where an attack might come from. He cautiously continued forward and tensed when the sound came closer.

He relaxed and eased his grip on his gun when he saw a man rounding the corner further down the street. He frowned when he saw that the man kept running and kept looking over his shoulder. The man had green short hair and the closer he got, the more he could make out of his strong features that seemed at odds with his lanky figure. The man kept running straight towards Jesse, so he raised his hands up in front of him in a hope that the man would run around him.

The man seemed like he didn't care, he shoved Jesse hard towards the wall with a glare. The green eyes almost seemed to glow for a split second before the man continued by and kept running.

"Rude", Jesse muttered as he fixed his hat and pushed himself from the wall. He looked after the man for some moments, something felt off with him. He shrugged and continued down the street from where the man had come from.

As he approached the corner, the second pair of running footsteps didn't register with Jesse until it was too late. He had barely seen the person before pain shot through his chin and he was down on the ground with someone over him.

"Fuckin' hell," he groaned and tried to get his body to move. He opened his eyes and was met with furious, dark eyes. The man snarled something in a language Jesse had no chance to understand before he pushed himself up from Jesse and started to run again. Jesse pushed himself up in a sitting position and rubbed the back of his head.

"What the fuck?" He looked back at the man and studied him. But when he spotted what looked like arrows poking out of a bag and a bow thrown over a shoulder, he jumped into action.

"Hey! Hold up!" he yelled as he began to run after the man. The man acted like he hadn't heard him and Jesse cursed, the man was much faster than him. He he took out the sleep dart he had been given and cursed even more when they were getting closer to a more crowded area.

He stopped in his tracks and took aim. "M' sorry 'bout this," he mumbled as he shot the sleep dart. It hit its target in the neck and Jesse saw how the man stumbled with the hit and then sink down to his knees. He jogged over as he reloaded the sleep dart gun and glanced around for the other man he first saw, but it seemed like he was already gone. He looked down at the man he had shot who had torn away the dart from his neck. He was staring at the dart in his hand.

"Sorry 'bout that, but you're are a suspect for illegal hunting all across Asia and therefore under arrest," Jesse said and crouched down beside him. The man slowly turned his eyes to Jesse and stared blankly at him. Jesse didn't like the dim look in his eyes, especially not when it was so obvious he was trying to resist the sleep that was overcoming him.

Jesse stretched out an arm and caught him when he didn't have the strength to keep himself up. "And let's not let you fall on your pretty face. Come on, let's get outta here." Jesse took out handcuffs from one of his pockets and cuffed the man. He tried to fight against it but the weakened state of him made it easy to put on handcuffs for Jesse. He had to give it to the man though, he could feel the strength the man had from the weak struggle. Especially since most people would’ve been asleep by this point.

It did not take much longer for the man to be fully asleep and Jesse was free to manhandle him into a position where he could carry him without much trouble. When Jesse had him in a comfortable position, he began to walk towards the car he had parked outside of the town. He tried to go by the edge so that he didn't encounter many people.

After he had reached the car and secured the suspect in it, he fished out his phone and called Gabriel. The signal kept going and Jesse threw a glance at his sleeping passenger.

" _ Reyes here. _ " Jesse let out a sigh of relief when Gabriel finally answered.

"Hey, boss. I think I've caught the hunter."

" _ You think? I hope you haven't arrested a muggler. _ "

"Honestly? I hope so too. But the guy had bow and arrows and he was running after someone, or something I'm not sure, and I'm just gonna double check those arrows, but nobody really uses that now so I think he's our guy."

" _ Mijo, relax. Breathe, you don't need to say everything in one breath. So. You got the hunter. Want me to send you transportation back to India? _ "

"Yes please. The sooner, the better. The guy's sleeping right now, but I'm not sure if I wanna deal with him when he wakes up. Despite being drugged, he's really strong, Gabe."

" _ Roger that. I'll fix it, go to the closest airport. Meet you back in India _ ."

"Understood, boss. See you there," Jesse said and ended the call. He turned and look at the passenger and studied him more closely for a bit. The man had the sides of his head shaved with longer hair on the top of his head tied into a neat knot. A piercing was on the bridge of his nose, some earrings and he had a beard that looked well cared for. He was rather handsome, Jesse had to admit. He shook his head and reached for one of the arrows and started to inspect it. Sure enough, it was similar to the arrowhead he had found before and the traces of magic was much stronger in the compleat arrow.

"Hm. Shame that you gotta be a criminal. Wouldn't have minded to take you out on a dinner," he mumbled and put away the arrow and arrowhead. He ignited the engine and back out of the parking lot and started to drive to the closest airport.


	4. Chapter 4

Jesse tapped a finger against his thigh as he kept counting in his head the seconds they kept moving. They had touched down with the plane in Nepal a few hours ago, and the car ride was an uncomfortable one. He had tried to make small talk to the team that had been sent with him but many of them were tired so that died out fast. He didn't want to ruin people's rest, not when they wasn't sure on what would meet them in the village they suspected that the hunter resided in. They needed everyone to be on their toes.

He glanced at his teammates. Two had flew with him from India, Sanjay Handoo and Ratna Cheroo, and one had met them at the airport. Had flown in from China, Mei Ling-Zhou, if he remembered correctly. Sanjay was good at tracking magic, which they needed to locate the exact position that matched with the magic in the arrow. Ratna was the communicator of the team, they spoke so many languages that even an omnic would envy them in their ability to understand people. Mei Ling-Zhou was good at seeing the natural flow of magic and therefore detect things hidden that would be hidden even for him. And Jesse would act as the brawn if needed.

“We are closing in on the village, you can wake up the others,” Ratna said and Jesse nodded. He turned in his seat and shook both Mei and Sanjay. Weak protest came from Sanjay but after Jesse insisted on shaking them, both of them corrected themselves in their seats and stretching out their arms.

Jesse gave them a nod before he turned forward again. “I’m gonna call Gabe and see if they got anything out of the hunter yet,” he said and pulled out his phone.

“Sounds good. I hope they got anything so we might have any idea if the place are full of charms or anything similar,” Mei said and Jesse agreed. He didn’t want to get trapped in charm or spell from unknown region. All they was sure of that the guy was Asian, but they weren’t sure from where. Jesse had been the only one to hear him speak and he had not recognized the language.

“ _ Reyes here, _ ” Gabriel said and Jesse snapped out of his musings.

“Howdy, boss.” He glanced back in rearview mirror when he heard a giggle and locked eyes with Mei. She gave him an embarrassed smile and hid in her collar. He smiled and turned his attention back to the conversation. “We’re soon at the village. Just wanted to check if you got the hunter to talk yet. Kinda need info about the place if we’re gonna do this fast.”

“ _ The man hasn’t spoken a word yet. He’s even more stubborn than you when we first found you, _ ” Gabriel said and Jesse let out a sigh, “ _ and he’s been refusing to eat and drink. _ ” That set the alarm off in Jesse’s head.

“He’s not? Shit. That ain’t good. It’s been like two days since I brought him in, and we have no idea when he ate before that.”

“ _ Exactly. Ms. Vaswani are scheduling with her doctors so he can get fluid and nutrients through iv. So, I got nothing for you regarding the place where he supposedly stays at. But, Ms. Vaswani has contacted the Shambali in the area so they’ve sent someone who will meet up with you. _ ”

“Shambali?”

“Oh! We’re meeting the Shambali?” Mei piped up and Jesse glanced back at her. She looked excited. He nodded and she let out a small squeal.

“ _ Overwatch don’t have headquarters in Nepal, but branches of the Shambali are keeping an eye on the supernatural there. Figured that they might know a bit more about the area. _ ”

“Sounds good. Call if you get the guy to talk. And I’ll call if we find anythin’ interesting.” He ended the call and turned around to look at Mei. She still looked excited.

“Oh my gosh! We’re going to meet the Shambali! I’ve always wanted to meet them and learn what they know about the world’s magical flow!” she said as she motioned in the air.

“Who are the Sambali?” Jesse asked and Sanjay turned to him.

“The Shambali are a religious group that exist around Asia. Most of them are not aware of the supernatural, but some are studying the world with other eyes. They have helped us and we have helped them, but they are not so keen on joining us properly. Thinks we are disrupting the balance of the world too much,” they explained and Jesse hummed and turned forward again.

“Well, ain’t easy to not to when there are other people who wants to disrupt the balance for their own gain. Gotta keep the balance somehow.”

“True, but the way we are doing it now are not good in the long run. It’s like we’re blurring out the line between our world and the spiritual. Look at it like the global warming, but with gods, mythical creatures and monsters instead,” Mei interjected and Sanjay nodded in agreement.

Jesse hummed and thought back on the vampire he had hunted a few weeks ago. That vampire wasn’t normal, he couldn’t deny that something was changing.

“Sorry to cut it short, but I think I see the monk that would meet us up,” Ratna said and Jesse focused back on the road ahead of them. They had already arrived in the village and he could see people walking around and doing their own business. He also spotted an omnic floating by the road, looking at them as if he waiting on them. Sanjay slowed down and stopped by the monk with the window rolled down.

“Hello, are you from Shambali? We would have a guide from the temple,” they said and the monk nodded.

“Indeed I am. I’m Zenyatta Tekhartha, a pleasure to meet you. You are from Overwatch, correct?” the omnic, Zenyatta, said and Jesse nodded. He studied him for a bit, he looked rather ordinary in his opinion. Besides the pants and a tassel hanging around his waist, he had the bare minimum in plating which gave him a sleek appearance. The most odd thing with the omnic was the nine balls floating around his neck. He tilted his head and nodded.

“Good. if you wish I can bring you to the temple and show you to your rooms where you can stay until you have found what you needed.”

“Thank you, and please do,” Ratna said and Zenyatta gave them directions on where they could park the car. They quickly found the place and parked the car.

Jesse looked up at the looming statues as they started to unpack the car. Statues of omnics and humans alike stared down at them, and Jesse couldn’t help but to feel like he was being judged. As if they could see through his skin and reveal all the things he had done through life. He felt goosebumps rise on his arms and a shiver ran down his spine.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?”

Jesse glanced down at Zenyatta who had decided to join him. He looked back to the statues before he shrugged and reached for his duffle bag and a luggage that held some of the equipment that got sent with them. “They are certainly impressive. Especially how they are floating.”

“Indeed. Come, let me show you your rooms.” Zenyatta started to float away and Mei quickly joined up by his side and started to ask questions. Sanjay and Ratna followed after with their own bags and started to talk between each other. Jesse shook his head before he started to walk, glancing around him. Something with the temple felt out of place and it unnerved him more than he liked.

They walked down some corridors and was shown into a room with four beds. Jesse dumped his bag at one bed and put the luggage by a small table.

“I’ll be walking around a bit, be back in a while,” he said and left the room after he had gotten a chorus of affirmatives.

It took some time until he found a large outdoor area where it seemed like not many people were at. He walked out and took out his lighter and a cigar.

“You seem troubled, my friend.”

Jesse let out a curse as he almost dropped the lighter. He looked over his shoulder to see Zenyatta approach.

“Goddamn, don’t scare a man like that,” he grumbled and lit the cigar. He took a breath of it and felt his nerves relax a little.

“I apologize, it was not my intention to scare you,” he said as he came up beside Jesse.

“It’s alright. Name’s Jesse McCree.”

“Nice to meet you, Jesse McCree. Now, what’s troubling you?”

Jesse motined towards the temple. “This place. What is it?”

Zenyatta tilted his head. “Curious. I do not meet many humans who feel this. The temple is just what it is, but what you feel is what resides among the mountains,” he said and motined towards their view. “We from the Shambali are here to study it. We ourselves are not sure on what it is, but it neither belongs to Chaos or Order.”

“Huh. Now that’s interestin’,” he hummed and took another breath of the cigar.

“Indeed. But that’s not why you are here, are you?”

“Nah. We’ve recently captured a hunter that has been hunting endangered species all over Asia. The guy ain’t talking so we are gonna investigate his home. We tracked that it would be somewhere here, but we need to locate the exact position. We’re probably gonna look after it tomorrow, the travel had been long.”

“I see,” Zenyatta hummed and Jesse glanced at him. The monk was looking over the mountains, from what he could tell. He turned his eyes forward and let the silence grew.

“Let me accompany you on your search tomorrow,” Zenyatta said into the silence and Jesse turned towards him and regarded him. After awhile he shrugged.

“Sure. I’m sure Ms. Ling-Zhou would be delighted.”

“Excellent. Then I will see you tomorrow, Jesse McCree,” Zenyatta said and turned around. Jesse watched him float away and didn’t look towards the mountains until the omnic was gone. He shook his head and spent most of the evening outside.

  
  


The chill of the wind made Jesse pull his serepe a tad closer. They were walking through the village in search for the place where the hunter should have some sort of a base, but it was going slow. Many people stopped them to talk with Zenyatta and other times they needed to stop so Sanjay could reconfigure the route they were on so it matched the magic trails from the arrow.

"The village ain't that big, it should be near, right?" he asked after yet another stop.

"Yes. We should be close. In fact, it should be just around the corner," Sanjay said and lead the way. They walked around the corner and was met with a staircase leading up to one door and a door under the staircase.

"It's one of those two doors," they said and went to the closets door.

"I wonder which one it is," Mei wondered as she looked between the doors. Ratna walked up the stairs and started to inspect the door.

Jesse hummed and scratched the back of his head. He glanced at Zenyatta that was floating silently by his side. "You can't feel which door it is?"

"No. Something is blurring out the lines of magic here, the fact that we even found this place is amazing enough," Sanjay said and backed away from the door with a frown.

"Well, worst case scenario, we'll just have to break in," Jesse said with a shake of his head.

"May I suggest that you try knocking on the doors at first? Someone might be home," Zenyatta said and Mei nodded.

"Sounds good. I know I wouldn't like to break in on someone who's home," she said and walked to the door under the staircase. She knocked on it and all of them waited for some answer in silence.

"Well, it seems like there ain't anybody home-" Jesse began but fell silent when he heard how someone was getting closer to the door.

An old woman opened the door and gave them a questioning look.

"Ah, let me," Zenyatta said and floated to Mei's side. Soon he engaged in a small talk with the woman whose expression brightened by seeing Zenyatta. Soon enough they bowed to each other and the woman closed the door.

"She said that she lives alone here and she wishes us luck in our search," he said as he turned around.

"Anything else?" Jesse asked and tapped his foot.

"She said that her neighbour has been missing for a few weeks so this should be the door," Ratna said and Jesse looked up at them.

"So, how should we break in? Especially with the neighbour home?" Mei asked with concern all over her voice.

Jesse grinned and started to walk up to the door. "Don't ya worry. Give me a look on the lock and I'll get it up," he said and kneeled by the door. He could see it was an older lock immediately and reached for his usually improvised tools. Within a minute the door was open and Jesse grinned in triumph. “Welcome ladies and gentlebeings, the show can begin,” he said and rose up to his feet.

“Huh. You could actually get it open,” Ratna said with a whistle. Jesse put a hand over his heart and let out an offended noise.

“You wound me, partner!” he said but he didn’t fight the grin on his lips. Ratna rolled their eyes but Jesse saw the smile on their lips.

“Now that the door are open, I should go first. In case there are some trap spells or something like that,” Mei said and hurried up the stairs.

“Well, ladies first,” Jesse said with a tip of his hat. Mei giggled and turned towards the door. She carefully walked inside as she inspected the area. Jesse turned towards the others and nodded. “Go first, I’ll keep an eye on the door,” he said and got affirmatives in response. He watched as Ratna and Sanjay walk past him while Zenyatta floated. He went in last and closed the door behind him.

“There’s no obvious trap spell but there are certainly signs of magic in here. Very strong signs in fact. This should be the place,” Mei said as she walked deeper into the apartment.

Sanjay, Ratna and Mei was soon investigating it and discussed what they found. Jesse watched as they moved around and glanced on Zenyatta that stayed by his side, but kept looking at the others. It was a small apartment, the hallway almost immediately leading to some sort of living room with one side designed into a small kitchen. Past the living room was a short corridor that held two doors. The toilet and the bedroom, if Jesse had to guess.

“Oh! I think I found something!” Mei exclaimed after some minutes. Jesse walked over to what looked like a freezer.

“Have you taken a look inside it?” he asked but she shook her head. He raised an eyebrow and reached to open it, but his hand were slapped away.

“It’s locked with some kind of spells. Let me decipher them first!” she scolded and turned back to the freezer. Jesse rubbed his hand but backed off.

“So far it seems like that is the most protected thing in the apartment. We still need to look deeper,” Sanjay said as they looked towards them before they walked towards the corridor.

“You check that, I’ll continue in here while they figure out the freezer,” Ratna said and continued looking around. Jesse nodded and turned his attention back to Mei and her work. He looked up again when he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Zenyatta follow Sanjay but he didn’t have time to think about it before a ‘aha’ came from Mei. He looked back to the freezer in time to see Mei opening it and let out a whistle.

“I guess that’s mostly body parts,” he said as he looked into it. It had several bags that you really couldn't see through, but some of them you could. Jesse could immediately see a leg and something pink that he was sure wasn’t meat that you should eat.

“I think so too. With the amount of magic, this basically confirms that it’s the hunter you have,” Mei said and straightened up.

“I’m gonna call this in to Gabe so they’ll get some ammunition towards that damn hunter. Last time I talked to him, the hunter hadn’t said a word,” he mumbled and pulled out his phone.

Gabriel had barely said hello before Jesse heard a scream. He cursed as he dragged out Peacekeeper and took three steps towards the corridor. He saw Sanjay fall out of a door and he ran to their side, putting himself in the doorway and pointed the gun into the room. A quick look of it made it clear that it was a bedroom. Zenyatta was by the bed, holding his arms up and by the wall, in an armchair, was another person. Unmoving.

“What the fuck?” Jesse exclaimed as he aimed the gun at the unmoving person.

“There’s no need for violence, Mr. McCree,” Zenyatta said as he raised his hands calmly. Jesse glanced at him before looking back to the unmoving person. And now that he looked, he realized he had seen this person before. It was the one who had shoved him aside before he had crashed into the hunter.

“What the fuck. How are you here?” he asked as he lowered the gun. The person didn’t answer or even acknowledge that Jesse had spoken. He frowned and walked forward.

“Hey, I’m talkin’ to ya,” he said as he put the gun in it’s holster. As he got closer, he could see that the skin was much paler than before and an unnatural dullness to it. And the man’s eyes were a dark color, and not the green ones that had glared at him.

“That’s strange,” he mumbled and reached out a hand to shake his shoulder. “You ok there?” The shoulder was too hard to be made of flesh. It felt like if he put too much pressure on it, it would shatter. And this close up, Jesse could spot what looked like cracks in the man’s face.

He took a few steps back and swept his eyes over the man. “I think,” he began slowly and had to repress a shiver at the realization, “that we have a very odd artefact at our hands.”

He looked up to see the others standing by the door. Mei carefully stepped more into the room and closer to the artefact.

“That… That looks like a porcelain doll,” she said as she got closer.

“A human sized porcelain doll,” Ratna said and Sanjay let out a curse. Jesse glanced at the doll and shivered this time before he lifted up the phone to his ear again.

“ _ JESSE MCCREE GODDAMMIT! ANSWER! _ ” Gabriel yelled and Jesse winced at the volume.

“Sorry Gabe, didn’t mean to disappear like that,” he said and ran a hand through his hair, pushing his hat to rest around his neck with a string.

“ _ What the fuck happened, kid? All of a sudden I hear you curse like you were being shot at and then you don’t fucking answer me when I try to call out to you. I was just about to cross dimensions to get to you. What the fuck happened? _ ” Jesse could hear worry in Gabriel’s voice and felt a bit guilty of just leaving him like that.

“Sanjay screamed so I ran over to see if they were okay. They got scared by, uh, a doll.”

“ _ They got scared by a doll? _ ”

“Yeah. A real life sized doll.” He ran his hand over in face and let out a slow breath. “Gabe. We need transportation away from here. We need to bring this doll, this artefact, in.”

“ _ How can you be so sure it’s a artefact? _ ”

Jesse looked over to the doll and saw how Mei and Sanjay carefully examine it. He remembered the green eyes that glared at him.

“‘Cause I’ve met its human counterpart.”


	5. Chapter 5

Jesse, Gabriel, Ms. Vaswani and a few of other people were watching as Angela were examining the odd artefact. She had an intrigued expression but a worried frown was slowly coming forth the longer she spent looking at it.

“Are you sure she knows what she’s doing?” Ms. Vaswani asked as Angela took the doll’s wrist and held it while looking at her wristwatch.

“Yes. She’s one of the greatest witches that exists. She knows artefacts better than anyone,” Gabriel said and rolled his shoulders. “Besides, your people couldn’t figure out its purpose anyway. It’s worth a shot.”

Jesse heard how she huffed but she didn’t say anything more about it. He shook his head and watched as Angela put two fingers on the doll’s throat.

Quiet mumble passed in the room as the others talked between themselves, especially when the time dragged out. But when Angela finally stood and walked away from the doll, you could hear a pin drop.

“What was it made for?” Ms. Vaswani asked as Angela approached them. Angela frowned and chewed on her lower lip before she turned towards Jesse.

“Are you sure you met a moving version of-” she glanced to the artefact before refocusing her sight on Jesse “-the doll? Are you completely sure?”

Jesse frowned but nodded. “He almost crashed into me. He shoved me into the wall before he continued runnin’. A few seconds later, the hunter literally crashed into me.”

Angela’s frown deepened and she turned towards Ms. Vaswani and Gabriel. “I need to speak with the monk.”

“The monk are working with the hunter. Why would you want to talk with him?” Ms. Vaswani said with a clipped voice.

“Because I know a healer when I see one. I’m sure he’s more willing to talk than that hunter of yours,” Angela said with a glare. Ms. Vaswani glared right back and Jesse felt like he needed to interfere. He raised his hands and opened his mouth but Ms. Vaswani spoke before he could.

“Hmpf. Very well. Show her to the room where he is kept. I’m going to the hunter again,” she said before she turned around and walked away.

Jesse looked after Ms. Vaswani until he heard Angela sigh.

“Come on. He’s this way,” Gabriel said and the three of them left the room. As they walked, Jesse couldn’t help to notice the hurried footsteps Angela walked with.

“What’s the hurry, Angie?” he asked as they entered an empty hallway.

“If it is as I suspect, we need to hurry.”

“What are you suspecting then?” Gabriel asked as they closed in on the room where Zenyatta was.

“That we are not dealing with an artefact.”

Jesse and Gabriel exchanged confused looks but didn’t ask anymore about it as Angela unlocked the door and walked inside. They walked after her and saw Zenyatta straighten his spine.

“Ah, greetings. You are the witch that met up with us when we landed,” he said before he turned towards Jesse and Gabriel. “Greetings, Mr. Reyes and Mr. McCree.”

“I apologize that I didn’t introduce myself earlier. I’m Angela Ziegler, healer and witch of Overwatch,” she said and took a seat on one of the chairs in the room.

“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Ziegler. I’m Zenyatta Tekhartha. It’s understandable that you were unable to, considering that it was a lot of things happening at once,” he said and floated so he was in front of her. He tilted his head to the side and let out a humming noise. “Though I do wonder why you are visiting me now.”

“I’m here because of the porcelain doll. I need to know, that’s not an item or any type of artefact, is it?” she asked and stared at Zenyatta. Jesse looked between the two of them and didn’t like the heavy feel that was slowly building up.

“That is not my place to tell,” Zenyatta said and Angela’s shoulders sagged.

“Please. You need to tell me.”

Zenyatta slowly shook his head. “My apologies, Ms. Ziegler. I’m bound by my vows.”

Angela let out a curse and stood up, turning her back to the monk and walked towards the door with determined steps. Both Jesse and Gabriel stepped out of her way.

“But his name is Genji.”

Angela paused with her hand on the handle and turned towards Zenyatta. “His name is Genji,” she said slowly and Zenyatta nodded. She smiled and bowed her head. “Thank you,” she said with relief before she walked out of the door.

Jesse gave Gabriel a questioning look but Gabriel shrugged and walked after Angela. Jesse scratched the back of his head before he turned towards Zenyatta. “Sorry ‘bout all this.”

“It’s quite alright. But please, be mindful of Genji. Hanzo would hate himself if anything happened to him.”

Jesse frowned. “Hanzo?” If Zenyatta hadn’t been an omnic, he was sure that he would be smiling.

“The hunter.”

Jesse hummed. “Hanzo, huh? Nice to have a name to the face. Thanks, Zenyatta. Hopefully you won’t be here long.”

“You’re welcome,” he said and bowed to Jesse. Jesse bowed back before he exited the room and hurried after Gabriel and Angela.

When he caught up with them, they were almost by the interrogation room that the hunter, Hanzo, would be at. Gabriel was not happy.

“Are you serious, Angela?” he asked and the witch nodded. Gabriel sighed and dragged a hand over his face. “We need to talk to Ms. Vaswani about this,” he said and knocked on the door before opening it.

“Ms. Vaswani. We need to talk,” he said without entering the room. Jesse could hear some shuffles inside the room before Ms. Vaswani came out. Gabriel stepped back and Ms. Vaswani took care with closing the door.

“Any news on the artefact?” she asked and looked directly at Angela.

“Yes. I’m very sure that we are not dealing with an artefact, but with an actual human being,” she said with so much conviction that Jesse almost didn’t doubt her.

“Hold up, a human? Angie, you know that I trust you, but how can that be? Sure, dolls has been animated before, but I’ve never heard of a human turning into a porcelain doll.”

“I wouldn’t dismiss it as impossible but the art of turning living things into porcelain has been forgotten many centuries ago. Or, as we has assumed anyway. This is highly curious,” Ms. Vaswani said with her arms crossed and one of her hands resting on her chin.

“Yes. I have seen some shattered pieces from a human turned into porcelain so I’m impressed that this one is whole. We need to get the hunter to talk, because we might be able to save him. The hunter must know more about this,” Angela said with a nod.

“We have confiscated all of the things the hunter has collected, you might want to take a look on those, Angela,” Gabriel said as he stared at the door.

“Great, meanwhile I’ll continue with interrogating the hunter,” Ms. Vaswani said and let her arms drop.

“Would you mind if I interrogated him?” Jesse asked and Ms. Vaswani gave him a look before motioning towards the door.

“You’re welcome to do so,” she said before she turned towards Angela. “Meanwhile, we’ll discuss what we should do with this human turned into porcelain.”

Angela frowned. “We should save him if we have the means to do so,” she said as they began to walk away.

“Well, I hope they figure out something about all that,” Gabriel said as he looked after the two women before he looked at Jesse. “So. Want me to be in there too, or do you want to do this by yourself?”

Jesse hummed absentmindedly and crossed his arms. “Gimme some minutes alone. I wanna see if I can get him to talk.” He uncrossed his arms with a nod and walked to the door.

“Hah, good luck, mijo, you’ll need it. He still hasn’t said a word.”

“Is that a challenge I hear?” Jesse said with a big grin and Gabriel shook his head.

“It’s enough of a challenge without me making it one. Good luck in there,” he said before stepping back. Jesse nodded and opened the door.

He paused in the doorway and took in the sight of the man that sat by the table. His hair was up in a messy bun in the back of his head and he was resting his forehead on the table with his arms stretched out in front of him. His wrists was still cuffed together, but Jesse doubted it would contain him if it came down to it. Either way, it didn’t look comfortable.

He stepped into the room and when he closed the door, Hanzo looked up. What immediately stuck out with him was how tired he looked now compared to when they crashed into each other. Like he hadn’t slept at all besides for the time Jesse had shot a sleep dart into him. But the dark eyes seemed to harden into a glare when his eyes focused on him. Jesse smiled at him and tipped his hat.

“Howdy. Name’s McCree. It was rather hectic when we first bumped into each other, didn’t get the chance to introduce myself. Sorry ‘bout that,” he said as he pulled out the chair and sat down. Hanzo straightened up and dragged his hands close to his body, the glare never disappeared. Rather, it seemed to get more intense instead.

“Sooo. Got a name I can call you by?” No answer. “Ok then. I guess I’ll call you Robin Hood.” He leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed and gave Hanzo a considering look. “Listen, Robin. I know you don’t wanna talk. But you need to. I’m sure you know why you’re here, you’ve hunted and killed protected species. A highly protected species. Most hunts the Aralez to sell its parts. But you left most of its body there. Why?”

Hanzo only continued to stare at him.

"You're really good at conversations, ain't you? Never mind. I'm gonna go on a wild goose chase here, but you didn't hunt all those creatures to sell, did you?"

Hanzo narrowed his eyes at him and Jesse grinned at him. "You hunted very specific creatures too. Creatures that are tied with healing and with curses. You seemed to have a plan on how to use those. Are you perhaps sick, Robin? You needed something to make a cure for whatever you have? Or do you have a curse, since you didn't turn to known medicine. Or-" he leaned forward and rested his arms on the table "-someone else got a curse and you're trying to help them."

Jesse watched closely for any type of reaction, but Hanzo continued to sit unnaturally still. Jesse put out his lower lip in a pout. "Aw, and here I thought I was onto somethin'." He met Hanzo's eyes and held them. "Ok I'm gonna stop playin' nice, Robin. Don't say I warned you."

He straightened up and studied every movement Hanzo made as he continued speaking. "Me and some others tracked down your apartment. Nice place. The one in Nepal, not far from a Shambali temple." He felt confidence build up when he saw a finger twitch on Hanzo. "We found all of those body parts you have taken from your kills. And some charms and equipment for making arrows. But we made another very interesting discovery. A very odd artefact. A human sized porcelain doll."

Jesse saw Hanzo move his hands a split second before the table was flipped towards him. He barely caught to stop it from smacking into his face. He had not time to move before the table was kicked into his chest and the weight of it caused him to fall over with the chair. Air left him in a huff when he hit the floor and he wheezed when Hanzo jumped onto the table on his knees. He hissed in pain as his ear was grabbed and Hanzo's forearm came down to press on his throat. He pressed his hands against the weight on top on him and succeeded to throw Hanzo and the table to the side, and he let out another hiss of pain when his ear got pulled at with the throw.

Hanzo was faster up on his feet but didn't get the chance to jump on him again before the door slammed open and Gabriel came in, with a shotgun pointed at Hanzo. "Do not move," he said and Hanzo stood still and stared at the gun.

"Fuck, you're really out to kill a man, ain't you?" Jesse cursed as he rubbed his sore ear. He sat up slowly and sat there for a bit as he watched Gabriel lead Hanzo back to the chair under gunpoint.

"Goddammit, Robin, let me talk to finish before you decides to murder me," he said as he rose up. Hanzo was glaring at him as his hands were tied behind the chair. Gabriel gabe him a questioning look.

"Nickname. Now," he said and picked up the chair and sat down on it, "your reaction all but confirms it. That doll ain't an artefact, ain't it? It's a human. A human that you're trying to save, isn't it?"

"If you have harmed him in any way," Hanzo said in a hoarse but threatening voice. Jesse blinked and opened his mouth but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. Goddamn that voice.

"If you take some time to goddamn listen to us, I could've told you this without any violence. And no, we haven't harmed him. He's in a rather predicament, ain't he?"

"Where's Zenyatta?"

"In another room, arrested for 'working with the enemy'. Now, care to tell us what's been happening with all this? Why is that man a porcelain doll? And who is he?"

Hanzo stared at him and Jesse stared back. Gabriel was still behind him and Jesse saw him shake his head before he rested a hand on Hanzo's shoulder. Hanzo tensed up at the contact.

"Let's make a deal. We'll help you out. Find whatever you are hunting now. Help that poor man if possible. But you have to admit to your crimes and take the consequence for them," he said and removed his hand. Hanzo stared into the floor and Jesse studied him. He was still tense and he couldn't read the expression on his face.

The silence grew in the room and Jesse was prepared to stand up and leave when it seemed like Hanzo wouldn't talk anymore.

"One condition." Hanzo looked up and straight into Jesse's eyes. "I get to go and hunt. I will not leave it in the hands of the likes of you."

"Fine. But you are not hunting alone. You will have someone with you at all time."

Hanzo opened his mouth and Jesse shook his head. "That's the rules. Besides, two people should make it go faster," he said and Hanzo narrowed his eyes at him. He eventually sighed and his shoulders sagged.

"Fine. I agree on your terms."

Jesse nodded and motioned that he could continue.

"My name is Hanzo. The man that is a porcelain doll is my brother, Genji. He's been cursed and I'm trying to reverse its effects. I've hunted several different creatures and collected many charms, what I have should be enough to turn him human again. But even if we turned him human again, his mind isn't there. The creature I was hunting before I got captured-" an annoyed look was thrown at Jesse "-has his mind. I need to capture it before I turn my brother back, I don't want to risk him breaking himself." Hanzo had tensed up during his explanation and Jesse couldn't blame him.

He rose up and fixed the table as Gabriel tied up the knot holding Hanzo in place.

He watched as Hanzo and Gabriel talked about the specific creatures Hanzo had hunted and killed. When Gabriel confirmed the sentence he would most likely receive, they went into details of how they would track the creature done. They would start in China.

Eventually Hanzo asked who was going to follow him. Jesse's stomach sunk when he saw Gabriel smirk and give him a look.

"Jesse will."


	6. Chapter 6

Mudanjiang were really impressive, Jesse had to give it that the very least. He liked it good enough. He did wonder how Hanzo could be so sure that they would find clues on where the doppelganger would be here though. He glanced at his partner. Hanzo had a sharp profile and a frown seemed to have became a permanent fixture on his face. He looked like he just wanted people to leave him alone, and Jesse couldn't blame him for that.

”Stop staring at me,” Hanzo said without giving him a glance. Jesse raised an eyebrow and pushed his hat a bit back.

”I do need to keep an eye at you,” he said but averted his eyes anyway. He got a hmph as answer and he turned completely towards Hanzo in return.

”So. What's your plan?” He motioned around them with both of his arms. ”Just walkin' around the city and hope that we bump into it?”

The frown turned into a snarl and Hanzo turned towards him. Jesse stood still when Hanzo got up in his face. ”If it hadn't been for you, I would've already caught it! So stay silent and leave me be!”

”No can do, you're still under arrest! If you don't follow the deal, you know I gotta put you into a cell,” Jesse said and glanced towards the sides. People was giving them curious looks and some seemed to slow down. He focused his attention back to Hanzo. ”Besides, if you help me understand how this search are gonna go, I can help.”

Jesse was glad that looks couldn't kill, he was pretty sure he would've been dead many times over otherwise.

”Look for places with arcades or loud music. That attracts it,” Hanzo said and walked away with quick steps. Jesse rubbed the back of his neck as he watched him walk away. He let out a sigh and followed.

”You ain't easy to work with,” he commented and got a half-laughter as answer.

”You never shut up, do you?” Hanzo said and Jesse could've sworn he had heard some amusement under all that spite. He gave Hanzo his best charming smile.

”Nope.”

Hanzo shook his head. ”Focus on finding arcades. The sooner the better.”

”Yessir.”

  
  


”You really were expecting us to bump into it, weren't you?”

They had found some clubs and arcades but the doppelganger had not shown up on any of the places. Jesse had kept an eye on Hanzo but Hanzo had been completely focused on finding the doppelganger or any trace of it. Eventually Jesse had dragged Hanzo to a hotel so they could rest and he hadn't been able to stop the words when he saw how frustrated and disappointed Hanzo was.

Jesse raised his hands as Hanzo gave him a glare. But it soon went away and tiredness took its place and his shoulders slumped.

”It should've been here. The city follows the pattern it has taken before, it should've been here,” he said as he dumped his bag by one of the two beds. Jesse put down his own by the other bed and sat down on the bed. He looked at Hanzo and watched. Hanzo was rummaging through his bag, some strands of hair had fallen out of the knot and were dangelin by his face. And he looked so tired.

”What's the pattern it follows?” he asked and watched as Hanzo straightened up with some new clothes in his hands. He pushed the strands of hair back and met Jesse's eyes.

”First, to towns and cities with a lot of sounds and games. Then to a city that's more inclined to spiritual things. A lot of temples. If they hold actual magic in them, it's a bigger chance that it will come there.”

“Why does the creature go to such different places? Doesn’t make any sense,” Jesse hummed and furrowed his eyebrows. “It looks like there’s no reason for that pattern at all.”

“Perhaps not to you.” Hanzo started to walk towards the bathroom. “The creature are searching for Genji. Genji loved going to clubs and arcades. I think it felt that Genji was close to a temple and that was why it was in such towns.” He opened the door but paused there.

“You’re not telling everything. You’ve only shared the minimum, maybe not even that.” Jesse stared at the back of Hanzo’s head. A sound that was similar to a laugh left Hanzo.

“Perhaps. But that’s what you need to know.” Without another word, he walked into the bathroom and locked after him. Jesse stared at door until he heard the water start running. He shook his head before he stood up and undressed. He found his pyjamas pants in his bag and put them on, neglecting the shirt.

He was in bed and reading an article on his pad when Hanzo stepped out of the bathroom. He didn’t pay him much mind and focused on the text in front of him, but he looked up when Hanzo cleared his throat.

“You’re not going to shower?” Hanzo asked with an odd look on his face. Jesse blinked and shook his head and took in Hanzo’s appearance with a frown.

“Ain’t it gonna get hot sleeping with all of that?”

While he had much comfier clothes on than before, he still wore a loose fitting long sleeved shirt and pants. Jesse couldn’t help but to feel a small twinge of disappointment but he shoved the feeling away immediately.

“It’s for the best,” Hanzo said and moved to his bed. Jesse watched as he made himself comfortable in it.

“Why’s it for the best?” He received a half hearted glare so he shrugged and turned back to the article.

The room got dark with a click and beside the faint light coming from the window, the only light was Jesse’s pad. The silence got heavier and soon Jesse could hear heavier breathing coming from the other side of the room. He smiled to himself and continued to read.

“Why did you decide to go with me?”

“Holy motherfucker fucking jesus christ!” Jesse swore and it was by sheer luck that he didn’t throw the pad across the room. A loud snort made him glare at Hanzo and point an accusing finger at him. Hanzo was laying down in bed, a fist in front of his mouth as if he was trying the hold back laughter.

“Don’t. You fucking dare to do that again. I fucking thought you had fallen asleep!” Another snort, a bit quieter than the last one, escaped Hanzo. Jesse sighed and slumped back down.

“My apologies, wasn’t my intention to scare you,” he said and Jesse thought he could see the other smirk. He rolled his eyes and shut the pad down. The darkness embraced them and Jesse could barely see Hanzo’s silhouette.

“To answer your question, I was assigned to keep an eye at you. It’s my work to follow you around and help you with this hunt. And you couldn’t have gotten anyone better, me and Gabe are the best hunters. In the US at least. So, if you decide to let me help, we’ll find that creature in no time.” Jesse heard a hum but nothing more.

“Anyway, we better catch some sleep. Goodnight,” he said and closed his eyes. He heard a muttered goodnight from Hanzo and some shuffles. He yawned and soon enough he was fast asleep.

  
  


Jesse woke up to someone moving around in the room. He blinked slowly and turned away from the wall so he could see what was going on. The room was brighter than the night before which meant he had at least slept until morning.

Hanzo was up and walking around and seemed to mutter to himself under his breath. Jesse couldn’t hear what he was saying but he was not wearing the shirt from the evening before. He trailed his eyes along the muscles moving in Hanzo’s right arm. His mouth felt dry all of a sudden when Hanzo turned and revealed the tattoo on his back and left arm. From what he could see, the tattoo on the arm was a full sleeve with something spiraling down along the arms surrounded with what looked like clouds and thunder. The tattoo on the back was a dragon following the left side and the lower back and it looked like it was trying to reach two circles with a blue hue that was resting along his spine, a big one between Hanzo’s shoulder blades and a smaller one in the middle of the back.

He watched how the beast moved along with Hanzo's movement and he found he couldn't stop staring at Hanzo's back. It was memzering and the longer he looked, the more it felt like the beast was looking back.

His fascination of the tattoo was broken when it disappeared and he was staring at a well defined stomach and chest and if his mouth wasn't already dry he was sure this would be his undoing.

"I see that you are awake," Hanzo said and Jesse forced his eyes to look Hanzo in the face. The man had an eyebrow raised and a smirk tugging at his lips. Jesse cat up and cleared his throat.

"Yeah. I heard you moving around so I, uh, woke up. Been up for long?" he asked. Now that Hanzo was turned towards him, he could see that the spiral on Hanzo's left arm was a dragon.

"For a bit, yes. I was not sure if I should've woken you up, but it seems like it's unnecessary right now. I suggest you get dressed, we need to get moving," he said, turned to the bed and grabbed a shirt to pull over his head. Jesse watched as the tattoo on the back disappeared under the fabric. He shook his head and got out of the bed and started to dress himself.

"That's some nice ink you got. Why cover it up?" he asked and glanced at Hanzo as he switched pants.

"The tattoos would be too recognizable."

"I mean, here in private."

Hanzo let out a sigh and zipped his bag close. "The less you see it, the better."

That sparked Jesse's curiosity more than anything. "Why?"

"It's none of your business."

Jesse pulled on his shirt and reached for his hat. "It is my business. We're gonna work together who knows how long, and if that tattoo makes it dangerous for me to be around you, I need to know." He threw his pyjamas pants into the bag and closed it before he hauled it up on his shoulder. "You know what. For each question I ask, and you answer truthfully, you get to ask one about me. To break the ice. We're partners now and I'm ain't plannin' on lettin' you run away like that."

Hanzo regarded him for a long time and Jesse was sure that he would not answer. Eventually he sighed and motioned towards his arm.

"It's not dangerous to watch, per see. But magic are bound into the tattoos so you might experience uncomfortableness when looking at them. And whatever you do, do not touch the tattoos without some type of cover," he explained and took his own bag. "Can we leave now?"

"We can do that after I've eaten. I don't know about you, but I'm starving," he said with a grin and walked out of the door. He heard Hanzo sigh behind him but he could feel that the other followed him.

They found some food they could eat as they continued to walk around the city in search for clues on the creature.

"So. Do you have any magic abilities I should be aware of?" Hanzo asked after he had investigated a door that lead to a club. The club was closed but Hanzo has insisted that he would find tracks of it anyway as long as the creature had been there.

Jesse hummed and scratched his beard. "Not really. Well, I suppose I got one, but that one is only relevant if we get into a battle. Let's say that if you hear me say it's high noon, you better stay out of my sight and hide behind somethin'."

Hanzo turned his head towards him and gave him a curious look. "How come?"

"Ain't gonna answer that until you answer what makes your tattoos so special," Jesse said with a grin. Hanzo rolled his eyes but Jesse couldn't see any trace of annoyance.

"So. Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked as he studied the place. Hanzo shook his head and started to walk. Jesse fell into step with him and listened when Hanzo began to talk.

"No. I might need to make a larger search, use a map and some crystals."

"So, head to the hotel?"

"No, not quite yet. There are a few more things I want to check out."

"Lead the way."

Hanzo simply nodded and picked up the pace. Jesse watched him for a bit and smiled before he quickened his steps to keep up with Hanzo.


	7. Chapter 7

”Well, this is looking promising,” Jesse said as he took another drag from the cigar. The music coming from the club was loud and not really what he normally would enjoy, but he supposed he could get behind the tempo of it. It was catchy he had to admit. And this place radiated the feeling that every other club they had searched in.

“Yes. This is good,” Hanzo agreed and stepped into the line. Jesse stepped up beside him and let smoke trail out of his mouth as he exhaled. He smiled apologetic when the ones in front of them threw him a cautious and disgusted look and put the cigar out.

“So. Got any questions for me?” he asked as the queue slowly went forward.

“Yes. Why the cowboy get up? You have other clothes, do you not?” Hanzo said as he threw a critical eye on the hat. Jesse huffed and pulled the hat down over his eyes.

“Hey now, that’s a hit below the belt. Of course I got other clothes, I just prefer these,” he defended and glanced at the other. Hanzo looked amused and took up a wallet and the appropriate money that would allow them to enter the club.

“My turn. Why a bow and arrows?”

“Because I did not have my sword on me,” Hanzo said as he handed the guard the money. The guard gave them a critical eye but let them in without any questions.

“A sword? You use a sword too?” Jesse said and let out an impressed whistle when Hanzo nodded. “Where do you have it now?”

“If you have not confiscated it, it should be in Nepal still,” Hanzo hummed and turned towards Jesse. The music was getting louder the closer they got to the main room, but it was still bearable.

“Why do you use a revolver?” he asked and Jesse opened his mouth to answer but the door to the main room opened and music poured over them. Jesse winced at the sudden volume and then shook his head. He would answer another time. Hanzo raised an eyebrow but didn’t try to ask again as they were met with younger people coming out of the club. They had soon entered the main area and gazed over the sea of people. They had to keep close if they didn’t want to lose each other in here.

Hanzo pressed through the crowd, seemingly unbothered by all of the people dancing around him. Jesse had a bit more of a problem as people stopped him to talk about his get up with him, and soon enough Jesse had lost sight of Hanzo. He let out a curse and excused himself from the women and men, who he suspected wasn’t supposed to be here, who had gathered around him and kept asking questions. They looked disappointed but didn’t make a big fuss out of it. He pushed through the crowd and tried to spot Hanzo but it was to no avail. The dim light made it hard to see and the air was filled with sweat and hard to breath. He sighed and rubbed his face. Previously Hanzo had been good at staying close, but he supposed that it was only a matter of time before Hanzo tried something.

He pressed himself towards the bar and ordered a drink. There was no sitting place by the bar so he moved himself to one of the walls so he could keep an eye over the place whilst being away from the worst of the crowd. He scanned the faces and tried to recall how the face of the creature looked like, just in case he actually stumbled across it. Or Hanzo for that matter. He made himself as comfortable as possible and resigned to a dull evening.

He was on his second drink when Hanzo came up by his side. He lifted his glass towards him and gave him a lopsided smile.

“There you are, pumpkin. Worried for a sec that you had taken off and left me behind,” he said and swooped down the drink. “May I buy you a drink?” He tilted the empty glass towards Hanzo. Hanzo glanced at the glass before he frowned.

“We’re not here to drink, McCree,” he said and grabbed Jesse by the arm and pulled him along as he walked with hurried steps. Jesse quickly fell in step with him after a stumble.

“Hey now, what’s the hurry?” he asked as Hanzo pulled him towards the door. “I still need to return the glass, you know.” He looked over his shoulder towards the bar and noticed some people who stuck out even more than he did in this crowd.

“The dragon are not here, we need to move,” Hanzo said and Jesse slowly began to nod before he stopped and forced Hanzo to stop too.

He snagged his arm back and took a step backwards. “Now, hold up. Dragon? Hanzo, I know you haven’t told me everything, but are we hunting a fuckin’ dragon?”

Hanzo’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second as if he had just realized what he said, but the expression was soon wiped out to be replaced with annoyance. “We do not have time for this. We need to move,” he said and reached for Jesse’s arm again but Jesse took another step back. Now he looked alarmed and glanced over Jesse’s shoulder. “McCree!”

“You’re tellin’ me we’re huntin’ a goddamn dragon? Are you out of you goddamn mind?” Jesse and dragged a hand over his face. The irritation on Hanzo’s face grew and he grabbed Jesse’s arm.

“I’ll explain later,” he hissed over the music and dragged Jesse after him. Jesse stumbled and tried to keep up with the quick pace Hanzo walked in, they were almost running. He looked back when he heard a shout and saw the odd people moving towards their direction. Jesse raised an eyebrow and turned his attention forward, keeping the pace Hanzo had set. He smiled apologetic to the guard as he dropped the glass with him and he was relieved when he didn’t hear a crash.

Hanzo dragged him down the street and pulled him into the beginning of an alley before he stopped and took off his jacket. Jesse blinked and stared at the dragon as it was revealed and the gears started to turn in his head.

“Give me your shirt.”

Jesse frowned at that and glanced around the corner. He could see the odd people coming out of the club and starting to look around. “Are those people looking for us?” he asked as he turned back to Hanzo.

Hanzo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes. I’ll explain later. Now just give me your shirt. And please hide your serepe and hat, they are too recognizable.”

“And what am I gonna wear then? Nothin’?”

“You’ll get my jacket. Now hurry!”

Jesse shook his head but took off the requested things and handed the shirt to Hanzo. Hanzo handed him his jacket and Jesse inspected it. It was a nice jacket when it was on Hanzo, but it didn’t seem like it would look good on him. He shrugged and put it on. It was slightly too short in the sleeves, it didn’t seem to reach all the way down no matter how many times Jesse tried to pull them down. And he was tempted to leave the jacket open as it pushed in uncomfortably around the waist and the stomach, but he dragged the chain up anyway. As long as no one took a good look at him nobody would notice. And he could hide the serepe under the jacket without much problem, it just made him look a little bit more buff. He had to let the hat hang around his neck as it was not as easily to hide. He fixed the collar so it rested more comfortable and took a look at Hanzo. He could’ve sworn that it was illegal to have a shirt that was that tight on you. It was tight over the shoulders and the arms, it looked like the shirt would rip if Hanzo made the wrong, or right, movement. He cleared his throat and the sound made Hanzo look up from his fruitless attempt to make the shirt fit better.

“That, uh, looks a bit tight on you, partner,” he said and cleared his throat again.

“Hm. It indeed is,” Hanzo said and rolled up the sleeves, “but it has to work. Let’s move,” he said and walked out of the alley. Jesse shook his head to clear it before he followed Hanzo. As they walked, Hanzo let out his hair out and pushed it to the side before he held out the rubber band to Jesse. “Can you do anything with your hair?”

“Kinda hard actually. I can put it into a small pony tail but I highly doubt it would do anything good,” Jesse said and ran a hand through his hair. Hanzo shrugged and put the rubber band into one of his pockets.

A glance backwards told Jesse that the strange people were still looking, but were going in the other direction. He relaxed his shoulders in relief and turned his attention forward again.

They walked in silence as they got further away from the club. The people thinned out the further the got, and the more turns they did.

“I use her because she’s been with me since I was a kid, I know how she works, I could clean her without looking,” Jesse said and he could see Hanzo’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

Hanzo glanced at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You asked me earlier why I use a revolver. Peacekeeper has been with me since I was a kid, she may be old but in the right hands she’s far more deadly than today’s guns. Sure, I could use anything else, but those wouldn’t be able to handle the Deadeye.”

Hanzo stared at him before he turned his head away. “I see. And Deadeye I presume is that magic ability you have?”

Jesse nodded. “Yes.” He stopped on the street when there weren’t many people around them. “So, who are those people? And why are they after us? And why are we huntin’ a goddamn dragon?”

Hanzo ran a hand through his hair and slowly let out a deep sigh. “We are hunting a dragon because it has my brother’s mind. That is still true,” he began and Jesse could see how reluctant Hanzo was to talk.

He let out a frustrated noise. “But why? You don’t give me many reasons to fuckin’ trust you.”

Hanzo narrowed his eyes. “My first interaction with you was literally crashing into you and you putting me to sleep. Then you came into the interrogation room and acted all smug. You and your organization has not given me many reason to trust you either,” he said and crossed his arms.

Jesse glanced at his biceps and cleared his throat. “Fair enough but, uh, can you, uh, not rip my shirt? I rather like that one,” he mumbled and averted his eyes. He looked back when he heard a loud snort and saw that Hanzo was shaking with laughter.

The shaking slowly stopped and he looked at Jesse with amusement shining through his eyes. “You are one ridiculous man, Jesse McCree. That’s what you’re worried about?” He crossed his arms again, but more slow and delicate than the previous time.

Jesse pouted a little and pointedly didn’t look at Hanzo. “Yes, that’s one of my fave shirts! I got the right to be concerned about it when you’re so fuckin’ buff,” he defended and crossed his own arms. He glanced back at Hanzo when he heard a small chuckle.

“I will tell you when we get back to the hotel room. It’s the safest thing to do. In return, I want you to tell me more about Overwatch,” he said with one corner of his mouth tilted upwards.

Jesse grinned back at him. “Deal.”

They reached the hotel after an hour walking around and making sure that they weren’t followed. They passed the receptionist without getting a glance and when they reached the room, Jesse let out a sigh of relief.

“Finally I can take off this thing,” he said as he unzipped the jacket and shrugged it off. He rubbed at his hip where the jacket had dug in with one hand while he took off the serepe with the other.

“What?” he asked when he saw Hanzo’s raised eyebrow. “Your jacket dug into my hips. It was uncomfortable.”

Hanzo lifted his arms and kept staring at Jesse. Jesse trailed his eyes over the arms and when he looked back at Hanzo’s face, he had a smug grin on his face.

“Yeah yeah, you’re the one who wanted to switch clothes. Now give me back my shirt,” he grumbled and Hanzo let out a slow chuckle.

With some wiggling Hanzo got the shirt off and held it out to Jesse who took it and gave the jacket back.

Hanzo went to his bag and dropped the jacket by it. Jesse watched the dragon on his arm and how it got interrupted by the tank top on the shoulder. He shook his head and went to his own bag. He quickly changed out of his clothes and dragged on his pyjamas pants. He double checked he had all of his stuff by the bag before he dropped down into the bed. Hanzo had changed some more comfortable clothes too, but he still wore a tank top instead of the normal long sleeved shirt he had worn to bed the past few days.

“So. In what end do you want to begin?” he asked as Hanzo sat down on his own bed.

Hanzo let out a slow sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

“It is,” he began and slowly trailed off before he shook his head, “very complicated. You saw the tattoos I had on my back and on my arm.” Jesse nodded in confirmation. “They are a part of two spells that are a part of me. One part that involves the pearls on my back binds two creatures to me.”

Jesse narrowed his eyes at Hanzo. “Pearls?”

The corners of Hanzo’s mouth twitched. “The two circles on my back aren’t part of the tattoo. They are pearls infused into my body.”

“Damn. Did it hurt?”

“Yes. It did, very much so.”

Jesse looked at him for a bit before he sighed and motioned towards Hanzo’s left arm.

“Those creatures. Are they dragons?” His shoulders slumped slightly when Hanzo nodded.

“It is a family tradition to bound with dragons. Ever since we are small children, they teach us how to handle dragons properly,” he explained and rubbed at his wrist where the head of the dragon was.

Jesse listened as Hanzo explained who those people were, hired people and goons of his family whose mission was to bring Hanzo back to the family. How the clan had turned Genji into porcelain and separated him from his dragon, who now was running around trying to find Genji on a wild goose chase. In return, Jesse told him about Overwatch, how he came across the organization in the first place and how Gabriel had trained him in many of his skills. Their questions had turned less serious and more heartedly by the time the sun started to peak through the window.

“Hm, it seems like we have been up for an hour longer than intended,” Hanzo hummed and Jesse let out a yawn.

“Seems like it. We better go to sleep before we try to go to the next club to investigate,” he said and stretched out his back.

“Won’t be necessary. I found traces of the dragon in the club, some days old I believe, which means it has already left the city by this point. And the presence of Clan members all but confirms it. We better move to the next city,” Hanzo said as he rose up and walked over to the bathroom.

“Sounds good, especially when we have them after us,” Jesse agreed and watched as Hanzo disappeared into the bathroom. He was fidgeting with his phone when Hanzo came back out.

“Thanks for telling me, Han. This is gonna make the job much easier now. Just need to call Gabe and tell him all this,” he said as he showed the phone in his hand. He paused when he saw a frown slowly crawl onto Hanzo’s face.

“What’s up with nicknames?” he asked as he went to his own bed. Jesse hadn’t realized he had tensed up before he relaxed at the question.

He waved his hand in a dismissive manner. “Don’t worry. I give everyone nicknames. You’ll get used to it.” Hanzo’s expression relaxed a bit, but a hint of confusion lingered. Jesse paid it no mind as he turned his attention to the phone and dialed Gabriel.

“I hope it’s good, McCree,” Gabriel grumbled when he answered. Jesse couldn’t help but to grin.

“Oh yes, I got some good stuff. I suggest you take notes, boss,” he said and chuckled at the irritated grunts from the other side. He glanced at Hanzo who had made himself comfortable in the bed but very much awake.

“First off, we ain’t the only ones after the creature. There’s a clan named Shimada that are after it too.” He turned his eyes away and focused them on the wall. “Secondly, the creature is a dragon. That can shapeshift, to a certain degree. The dragon was here a few days ago, but since it’s gone, we’re moving out after we have gotten some sleep.”

“… That’s it? That couldn’t have been waiting until later?” Gabriel said before he let out a long and heavy sigh. “You know what, call me back before you move out. I’ll see if I have any information for you then,” he said and then the line went silent. Jesse grinned and shook his head before he put the phone away.

“He didn’t seem happy with the report,” Hanzo said and Jesse looked at him. Hanzo looked amused at the spectacle. Jesse gave him a big grin.

“Yeah, I probably interrupted his phone time with his husband. Can’t blame him to be honest,” he said and made himself comfortable under the blanket.

Hanzo let out a snort. “Is he that predictable? I got the impression that he was chaotic.”

“Nah, it ain’t that he’s predictable. It’s more like I’ve known them both for years now and I know that tone. I’ll just call back in the morning,” he said and let out a yawn. “Good morning, Han. See you in a few hours.”

Hanzo let out another snort. “Good morning to you too, McCree,” he said and it did not take long before Jesse had fallen asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Gabriel had sounded much happier when Jesse had called him the next day. He had not much to tell besides confirming what Hanzo had told him. Later, he got a call from Ms. Vaswani who had explained what they knew of the Shimada clan. Good information to know if they encountered them, but nothing that would help Hanzo and Jesse search for the dragon. They had to continue to rely on Hanzo's methods for searching after it which meant a lot of investigations, jumping from city to village and back to a city, and spending time in their hotel room and stare at maps.

The more days that had been spent on staring at maps, the more restless Jesse had become. Hanzo himself had slowly grown more and more frustrated by the slow progress. Eventually they worked out a system where one would go to clubs and search while the other was on the hotel and tried to figure out the location where the dragon could be.

  
  


Jesse had been out investigating some arcades without much luck before he had returned to their room, only to meet a rather grumpy Hanzo.

"No luck?" Hanzo asked and let out an annoyed sound when Jesse shook his head. Jesse raised an eyebrow when Hanzo returned his attention to the maps. He stepped closer and looked down at them too.

"So, did you figure out anythin'?" he asked as he took a look at some of the crossed out cities. He frowned when he only got a grunt as answer.

"Okay, Mr. Grumpy, don't forget that you ain't alone," he said and straightened up. "This is borin' the both of us to death, let's get out and do something other than thinkin' about where the goddamn lizard is," he said and motined towards then maps. Hanzo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It's a dragon, not a lizard. And no, we do not have time for such frivolous pursuit." He removed his hand and narrowed his eyes at Jesse. "Do you understand that?"

Jesse shook his head. "I ain't takin' that as an answer. Both of us needs to take a break. Come on, we'll put it on my tab even," he said with a charming smile. "Besides-" he took out his phone and waved it- "Gabe's keepin' an eye on everythin'. If he gets a lead on where the dragon is, he'll let us know."

Hanzo stared at him without moving a muscle and Jesse wiggled his eyebrows in return.

"The best would be if we could find it as soon as possible. Before the clan does," he began slow and Jesse shrugged.

"And you ain't catchin' a dragon if you work yourself into the ground. Everyone needs to relax, Han, even folks like you. And as I said, Gabe's keeping an eye out. That clan of yours ain't getting the dragon unnoticed."

Hanzo stared at Jesse and Jesse stared right back. A grin started to grow on his face and Hanzo sighed.

"Fine. What did you have in mind?"

Jesse couldn't help the giddy feeling when Hanzo rose up and looked expectantly at him.

"I saw an ice cream shop on the way back. Let's go and treat ourselves, hm? Or would you like a drink instead?"

Hanzo shook his head and reached for his jacket. "The ice cream sounds good enough. We can drink when the job is done," he said as he pulled the jacket on. He fixed his hair and nodded to Jesse. "Lead the way."

Jesse opened the door for Hanzo and tipped his hat to him with a smile. "After you."

Hanzo huffed and shook his head, but if the light wasn't tricking him, Jesse could see a tiny smile on his lips.

He closed the door after them and then took the lead towards the ice cream shop.

The walk to the shop was quick and after some discussion on what flavours they should have, they exited the shop with their treats.

Jesse glanced at the ice cream Hanzo had ordered. It was bigger this his and Hanzo looked pretty pleased about himself. "You got quite the sweet tooth there, Darlin'."

"You were paying for it. Of course I will take advantage of it," Hanzo hummed before he dug into his treat. Then he paused and glanced back at Jesse. "'Darling'?"

Jesse shrugged and focused on his ice cream. He hadn't meant to say that but he couldn't just take it back now.

He glanced back at Hanzo when he heard a chuckle.

"Never took you for the shy type," he hummed and had a teasing smile on his lips.

"Well, you know, there will always be something new to discover," Jesse said before he pointed towards what looked like a small park. "Let's find some seats in there."

Hanzo nodded and they walked in silence for a while as they focused on their treats.

"So. Got any stories about those dragons of yours?" Jesse asked after they had finally found a seat and their ice creams were gone.

Hanzo hummed and seemed in thought before he turned his head up towards the darkening sky.

"They are rather, how should it put it, their own persons. Twins, in fact. They come when I call them and they have helped me out of many situations."

"What kind of situations?"

"Mostly it has been out of fights or battles, but I do have to admit they have gotten me out of some rather embarrassing ones too. Has your Deadeye gotten you out of any similar situations?" Hanzo said and turned his head towards Jesse. Jesse scoffed as he lighted a cigar.

"Can't say that it got me out of any awkward ones. That honor goes mostly to Gabe, or Ana. Reinhardt liked to put me into those situations, and Jack mostly laughed at my misery. After all, Deadeye are mostly just effective in fights," he said and took a drag of the cigar. He slowly blew out the smoke and watched it drift upwards.

"I have yet to see you fight. I'm very curious to see how well you would fair in battle," Hanzo said and when Jesse looked at him, he could see a teasing glint in his eyes.

"Are you doubting my abilities? I might not have all of your fancy skills, but I'll have you know that I've gone into a wrestling match with a werewolf," he said and pointed an accusing finger at Hanzo.

"Is that so?"

"I'll would be happy to show you, but we don't have somewhere to sparr properly." He shrugged and took another drag.

"We can always rent a dojo if you truly wished to test your skill," Hanzo said with a challenging lift of his chin.

Jesse grinned. "Oh, you're on. Wanna see exactly what you can do."

"Then it's settled. I'll look after a dojo we can rent before we move to the next city," Hanzo hummed satisfactory.

"Deal," Jesse agreed and they were silent for a bit before Hanzo turned towards him again.

"Did you really wrestle with a werewolf?"

Jesse barked out a laughter. "Yup! Got scratched up good and my muscles ached for days afterwards, but I sure did," he said and laughed as Hanzo narrowed his eyes at him.

"You're bluffing. It would've bitten you."

"It did." Jesse tapped his metal arm. "It just wasn't my flesh it bit," he said with a grin and Hanzo eyed the arm.

"So the wrestling with the werewolf was not how you lost the arm?"

Jesse shook his head and held out the arm to Hanzo. Hanzo carefully took it in his hands and turned it as he inspected it.

"It's a totally different story that one. And a rather lengthy one," he said and watched as Hanzo traced some bumps and scratches in the metal. "But I did need to do a rather big reparation for it after the fight. The wolf tore some important wires in it and almost tore it in half. The prostetic is basically another one than the original," he said and let Hanzo manhandle his hand so the palm was facing upwards. Hanzo bent the fingers and Jesse could see his eyebrows furrow.

"Can you feel anything through it?" Hanzo asked as he glanced up at Jesse. Jesse shook his head and wiggled his fingers.

"Not really. It's connected to my nerves and it has some pressure senses built into it so I won't break or hurt anything by pressing too hard, but I can't feel the sensation of touching, or pain. It was disorientating at first, but I've gotten used to it."

"I see," Hanzo said, straightened up and let go of his arm. Jesse waved with his hand and shrugged.

"The dragons have been a part of me for many years now. I can't imagine how it would've felt to be without them. They are essentially an extension of me, and I am an extension of them. A very symbiotic existence by this point," Hanzo said as he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket just enough to show the head of the dragon on his wrist.

"Although, it can be a bit problematic in certain aspects. I can't make skin to skin contact with other with neither my left hand or back."

Jesse furrowed his eyebrows as he recalled what Hanzo had said about the tattoos. "It's cause of the spell that's in the tattoos, right?"

Hanzo nodded. "Yes. A rift spell that lets them travel through time and space. Rather bothersome when it gets activated unintentional," he said and rolled the sleeve back down.

"Can only imagine," Jesse said with a nod.

"Once sent Genji through the rift. The dragons was gracefully enough to carry him back like a cat would do to her kittens," Hanzo said with a rather amused tone.

"They carried him like a kitten?" Jesse asked and let out a laugh when Hanzo nodded.

"Now that's a sight I would like to see," he said with a grin and took a final drag of the cigar before he put it out.

"What do you say, Darlin'? It's gettin' late, we should head back to the hotel and get some sleep," he said as he rose up to his feet. When he looked back at Hanzo, he was met with an amused grin and a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"This is the second time you have called me 'Darling' this evening. You are certainly liking to give people nicknames, aren't you?" he said with a small tilt of his head.

Jesse cleared his throat as he felt heat raise to his ears. "Well, unlike you, I like the personal touch it gives. I'll refrain from the more obscure ones if you wish," he said and watched as Hanzo rose up. He let out a chuckle and gave Jesse a small smile.

"It's all good, Jesse. Now let us return to the hotel," he said and walked past Jesse. Jesse blinked and looked after Hanzo dumbfounded.

"You coming?" Hanzo asked over his shoulder and Jesse snapped out it. He grinned big as he walked up to Hanzo and fell in step with him.

"You called me by my first name," he said with a stupid grin.

"Well, if you are giving me ridiculous nicknames I should at least have the decency to call you by your name, no?" Hanzo said with a raised eyebrow, but a small smile was on his lips. Jesse let out a lugh.

"Fair enough, fair enough," he said with a shake of his head.

"Then it's settled," Hanzo said with a nod and Jesse saw the moment the smile turned teasing, "Jesse."

Jesse grinned and tipped his hat down slightly over his eyes. He decided that he rather liked that.


	9. Chapter 9

Jesse opened the door to their hotel room, the bags in his hand having a considerable weight to them. “I’m back with food and beer,” he said as he entered, toeing off his shoes by the door. He looked up and towards one of the two bedrooms when he didn’t get any answer. “Han?” He sighed and walked to the bedroom, stopping in the doorway. Papers and maps was strewn all around the floor, some had big, red crosses on them. And by the bed, on the floor, sat an increasingly frustrated Hanzo.

Jesse stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching as Hanzo kept talking to himself in japanese and moving around papers and maps. He watched the wrinkles appear when he frowned, watched his mouth move and when his tongue poked out in, what Jesse could only guess, concentration. He watched as Hanzo ran his fingers through his hair, the hair tie seemingly forgotten on the bed.

He shook his head and knocked on the doorframe. The sound made Hanzo look up and Jesse could see the exhaustion in Hanzo’s eyes. He sucked in a breath and his heart skipped a beat when Hanzo gave him a tired smile so he raised the bag and showed it. “Got food and beer for you, Han. Take a break, the dragon ain’t gonna die overnight.”

He felt a twinge of disappointment when Hanzo shook his head and turned back to the maps. “Put the food in the fridge, I’ll eat later,” he said as he picked up one map and studied it.

Without a word, he walked into the other bedroom where a small fridge and kitchen counter were and started to put the food and the beer in the fridge. He collected some of his comfy clothes and went to the bathroom. He turned on the water and as it heated up, he slipped out of his clothes and dumped them by the door. He stepped into the shower and let out a sigh of relief when the water hit his body. He slowly started to wash himself, thoroughly enjoying the warm water and letting his muscles to relax.

After stepping out of the shower, he took time to trim his beard and dress himself. He collected his dirty clothes and walked out. He threw a glance at Hanzo as he passed the room and shook his head when the man was in the same position as before. He dumped the dirty clothes on his bed and took out two beers from the fridge before he walked back to Hanzo. He only got a glance from him as he carefully walked over the papers.

"You really needed to sit on the floor?" Jesse groaned as he slid down beside Hanzo.

"Easier to keep an eye on all of it."

"Really? Is it really easier? You couldn't have used some screens and using tabs for it?" he muttered and pointed the beer accusingly at Hanzo. Hanzo chuckled and took the beer from him and opened it without any effort. Jesse watched as he took a swing of the beer and leaned backwards. He looked away when Hanzo brought the beer down and gave him a smile.

"Thanks, Jesse. And yes, this is much easier to keep track on than on computers,” he hummed and Jesse glanced at him.

"Perhaps," he said and opened the beer, "but that won't help you when you burn yourself out. Take a rest, Han. At least eat some goddamn food." He took a swing of the beer and grimace. It wasn't as cold as he had hoped, but it was good enough he supposed.

A snort made him look at Hanzo again. "What was it you said before? 'You ain't catchin' a dragon if you work yourself into the ground'?" he said with a teasing smile. Jesse laughed and grinned big.

"Seems like you remember. Now go and follow it, the food's in the fridge," he said and poked him in the ribs. The offending hand was slapped away. "Heh, ticklish?"

That earned him a glare. "Don't you fucking dare, Jesse McCree." Jesse raised both of his hands, one still holding the beer, in a show that he wouldn't touch the other. Hanzo narrowed his eyes suspiciously but rose up from his seat, far more smoothly than Jesse ever would be able to do.

"Gonna get the food," Hanzo mumbled before he walked out of the room. Jesse followed him with his eyes, absentmindedly staring at Hanzo's lower back. Even with the shirt on Jesse could imagine the muscles and the tattoo moving with it. He only snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the fridge close and he took another swing of the beer to clear his thoughts.

"I hope that will taste good enough even though it’s cold," he commented as Hanzo walked in with the food. Hanzo huffed and gracefully sat down by Jesse's left side.

"It's food. That's good enough," he said and without further due, opening the food package and started eating. As he ate he pointed at maps with his utensils and spoke of what he had figured out so far. Jesse sat half turned towards him with his elbow resting on the bed and watched him try to talk with food in his mouth.

Jesse didn't really notice when Hanzo stopped talking, but he did notice the raised eyebrow aimed towards him. He let out a cough and felt his ears heat up from embarrassment. "Come again?"

Hanzo snorted and looked amused. "I was asking if you were even listening, but obviously not. What's distracting you, cowboy?"

Jesse studied Hanzo's face. The way the corner of the mouth tilted upwards in a teasing smile, the way the crows feet became more apparent the wider the smile became. The curious glint in his dark eyes and how some strands of hair had escaped the tidy knot Hanzo kept. How soft those lips looked like. "Just a lot of things, you know?"

"Really?"

"Mhm."

"Things such as?" Hanzo's smile grew wider and he tilted his head. Jesse's eyes followed the curve of the neck up until they locked gazes.

"What would you say if I said it was all of you that distracted me?" He could feel his heart pound and his breath hitch when Hanzo leaned in slightly.

"And what is so distracting with me?"

"I dunno.  _ All _ of you," he said and stretched out his arm resting on the bed. His fingers touched the snagged hair and he drew patterns in it slowly, watching the short strands of hairs bend under the metal tips. "The way you smile is like a full moon showing how bright it can shine, the way your eyes and nose scrunch up when you laugh. Just. All of you are distracting." He looked back into Hanzo's eyes and smiled. Hanzo let out a huff and looked down but Jesse could still see the smile.

"Is that so?"

"Mhm."

Hanzo looked back up and Jesse's stomach did somersaults at the soft look. Hanzo raised his hand and brushed his thumb across Jesse's beard.

"Good thing that I find you distracting too," he said and his thumb stilled.

"Me? Distractin' you? Could've never guessed with you sitting and starin' at those papers all day," he said with a big grin and couldn't help but to chuckle when Hanzo pushed him on the shoulder with his gloved covered hand.

"Hmph. Sometimes I wonder why I let myself get distracted by you," Hanzo said with a shake of his head as Jesse straightened up from the push.

"Maybe I'm just that charmin'," he said and wiggled his eyebrows. Hanzo let out a snort and shook his head in disbelief, but the smile didn't disappear. Jesse felt his heart warm at the sight.

"Perhaps you are," he hummed and looked at Jesse with a fond look. The silence grew between them, but it didn't feel heavy. It was comfortable and, if Jesse had to be honest, relaxing.The low rumbling of the refrigerator from the other room was barely noticeable and the sound of cars outside were muted.

Jesse reached an arm out and brushed his thumb across Hanzo's cheek. "I wanna kiss you," he hummed absentmindedly.

The corners of Hanzo's mouth twitched. "Then do it." Jesse chuckled and leaned forward. Hanzo met him halfway. The kiss was hesitant at first, both of them coming in from an awkward angle and it didn’t help that Jesse couldn’t stop smiling.

Hanzo broke the kiss and hit him lightly in the shoulder. “Stop smiling,” he said with something he supposed was a frown but the smile that was on his lips was ruining the effect. Jesse let out a laugh and rested his forehead on Hanzo’s.

“Sorry, Darlin’, I’m just so damn happy. Besides, you're doing it to,” he said and rubbed his thumb in Hanzo’s beard. Hanzo’s eyes was more bright than Jesse had ever seen, like the moon and stars peeking through on a cloudy night. “Goddamn, you're a pretty sight.”

“I hardly stand any chance against you. Like a desert flower, you stand colorful against a dull surrounding. If anything, you are the pretty one.”

Jesse let out an embarrassed chuckle as heat rose to his cheeks and leaned away. “Damn, Darlin’. That’s some smooth talkin’ right there, think you gone and right out done me,” he said as he rubbed his own neck.

“Good,” Hanzo said with a satisfied smile, “then we can continue where we left off.”

Jesse opened his mouth to continue to talk, but the words was forgotten when Hanzo pressed his lips against his.

Jesse pressed a little more into the kiss, moving his lips lazily in time with Hanzo's. He brought up his right hand and ran it through Hanzi's hair, and decided that he liked the feeling of the shorter strands tickling the skin. He felt a hand sneak in under his shirt but it stayed on his stomach as it traced circles. There was no heat behind the kiss, only a desire of being close. To touch where he could, to feel warmth under his hand.

Both of them jerked away as a sudden ringtone echoed through their hotel room. Hanzo groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's just ignore that," he said and removed his hand.

Jesse dragged a hand over his face and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, but if it's who I think it is, I better answer or we'll have a smoke monster invading our room within no time," he said as he rose up from his position. Hanzo looked annoyed but didn't stop him. Jesse hurried over to the other room and searched for his phone and let out a sound of triumph when he found it.

" _ Goddamn, kid, I was about to end the call and go hunting for you, _ " Gabriel said when Jesse accepted the call.

"Sorry, boss. I, uh, was in the shower. And Hanzo was in the other room, looking through the maps and such," he said and rubbed the back of his neck.

" _ Well, you are alright I guess. Put me on the speaker, I got some clues on where that dragon is. _ " Jesse's heart speed up and hurried back to Hanzo. Hanzo gave him a questioning look when he sat down beside him again and put the phone on the ground.

"Ok, you're on speaker now. What you got, boss?"

" _ I pulled some strings and found out that there have been some hurried movements among the Shimada Clan. And that they are on the move towards Korea. _ "

Jesse watched as Hanzo's eyes grew and immediately took the map over Korea. "The Shimada Clan have some ties with smaller families in Korea, but wouldn't run to their aid if there was any trouble there. They focus mostly on Japan, especially after I left them. Any clue on where they are moving towards?"

Jesse looked down at the map Hanzo had put in front of them.

" _ We believe towards a town outside Ulsan because there has been a worsening in weather there, for no apparent reason. Most of our clues says it's due to supernatural reasons. It matches the pattern the dragon has shown before. _ "

Jesse glanced at Hanzo as Gabriel kept talking. Hanzo glanced back at him and gave him a smile. Jesse smiled back and bumped his shoulder with Hanzo. Hanzo turned his eyes back to the map, his smile not leaving his lips. And if he leaned into the touch, neither of them mentioned it.

Jesse focused back on the map and to what both Hanzo and Gabriel was saying. It was time to hunt a dragon down.


	10. Chapter 10

"Can you pull the plan through me again?"

Hanzo slung the bag containing his bow and arrows over his shoulder and held out a small box to him. Jesse held out his hand and Hanzo put it down before he turned back to rummage through a bag. Jesse opened the small box to see a pearl with a green hue to it.

"That's the pearl that belong to Genji and that we can capture the dragon with. First we need to get the dragon away from the people. Preferably out into the forest. Then we need make it turn into its dragon form. If we can get it to do that, I'll be able to trap it into the pearl," he said and closed the bag. He turned towards Jesse and regarded him. Jesse closed the box and looked back.

"Sounds easy enough," he said and handed the box back. Hanzo snorted as he put the box in one of his pockets.

"You got everything?" he asked and Jesse made a quick pad down of himself before he nodded.

"Ready as I can be, sugar." He grinned proudly when Hanzo chuckled with a shake of his head.

"Let's just move out," he said and began to walk towards the location Gabriel had given them.

"Got it, sweet pie," Jesse said and laughed when Hanzo hit him in the shoulder with a small blush across his face. Then Hanzo grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.

They walked side by side each other without much talk but Jesse couldn't stop grinning, even if he wanted to.

It was only when they approached the temple that Hanzo let go of Jesse's hand and hurried up the steps.

"Stay outside, Jesse, and keep watch. If it sees me inside the temple, it will come out and hurry away. Follow it, and I will try to make it go outside the town," he said and when Jesse nodded, he walked into the temple. Jesse watched him go before he leaned against a pillar and took out a cigar. He made small talk with passing tourists and townspeople, all curious on his clothes.

He was talking to a woman with a young girl who kept asking question through her mother when he spotted someone standing out of the crowd. He looked up and spotted a familiar face he had seen on two different occasions. He turned towards the woman and excused himself before he hurried after the dragon.

He kept his distance, kept count on which corners it turned around and tried to keep out of sight as much as possible. The way it kept glancing over its shoulders told him that it knew it was being followed.

He glanced around a corner when he felt a presence behind him. He took a steadying breath and leaned most of his weight on his front foot.

"We are getting closer to the edge of town," Hanzo said and Jesse relaxed. He glanced behind him to see his boyfriend standing there.

"You know, Darlin', I was just about turn around and knock you out. Next time, give me a heads up before you sneak up on me," he said and turned towards him. Hanzo smirked and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Noted. We should be able to press the dragon out of the town now and begin the third phase of the plan. Which will be the hardest one," he said and looked around Jesse and around the corner. He motioned to Jesse to follow him as he hurried down the street. Jesse was quick to catch up.

As they came closer to the corner where the dragon had disappeared behind, they heard unfamiliar shouts. Hanzo gave him an alarmed look and hurried to the corner to peek around it. Jesse reached him when he let out a low curse and leaned his whole body against the wall.

"It's the Shimadas. Fuck, I thought we would reach the dragon before them. Fuck it," Hanzo said and his shoulders sagged for a moment. But soon he shook his head and straightened up. "We'll get to it before them. They haven't captured it yet."

Jesse glanced around the corner and counted to three persons before he looked at Hanzo.

"You go and find the dragon, sweetheart. I'll keep them busy."

Hanzo gave him a strange look. "They are trained people in martial arts. While you are very good one on one, they are three people, Jesse. The risk of you not walking out of that fight is too high," he said and Jesse gave him a soft smile.

"I'm beyond the moon to hear that from you, Darlin'," he said and cradled Hanzo's face in his hands, "but trust me in this. I've been in worse situations, and unlike the time in the dojo, this time I got Peacekeeper with me." He kissed the tip of Hanzo's nose. "And we need to do something, and preferably now, right?"

Hanzo nodded before he sighed, took hold of one of Jesse's hands and kissed the inside of his wrist. "Very well. But you better come out of that fight unscratched," he said with a light warning tone. Jesse grinned.

"Deal. Now get going, Darlin', we don't have time to stand around."

"I'll see you later, cowboy," Hanzo said before he turned towards the wall and scaled it.

Jesse grinned and fixed his shirt. "Show time."

He stepped around the corner and let out a loud whistle. The men turned from the device they had in the middle of them and their heads towards him and he tipped his hat to them. “Howdy there fellas. Need any help there?” he said as he casually walked over. The men glanced at each other before one of them stepped a few steps closer and held up a hand.

“We don’t need any help,” he said with a shake of his head.

“You sure? You look a little bit lost if you ask me,” Jesse said and motioned towards the device the other two tried to hide. “You searchin’ for somethin’? I could help.”

The man closests to him narrowed his eyes and shifted slightly in place. “We do not need any help. I doubt that you would be of any help either way.”

Jesse noticed how the other two were slowly shifting stances as well. He turned his attention back to the man in front of him and gave him a polite smile. “How can you be so sure? I might be a citizen for all you know’,” he said and tucked his thumbs through the belt loops. This made the man huff out a laugh and shake his head.

“You are not a local. Leave now, or you will feel very sorry,” he said and a switchblade was pulled in front of his face.

Jesse leaned back slightly and raised an eyebrow. “Hey now, be careful where you point that. We don’t want anyone get hurt, now do we?”

“If you walk away, no one will be hurt,” the man said and Jesse let out a sigh.

“You see, I can’t do that. Heard that you are after a dragon, and that’s a rather protected species you know.”

The man’s expression darkened and Jesse had to duck as the blade was shoved at him. He tackled the man and they landed on the ground with a heavy thud. He quickly sat up and brought his left hand down. The man was out like a light but Jesse didn’t have time to think more on that as he rolled away from him and three sharp tings sounded as metal hit the rock on the ground.

He had barely gotten up on his feet when another man was over him. Jesse brought his arms up in front of his face and blocked a hit but let a wheeze when a leg connected to his ribs. He stumbled a few steps but he caught the next leg coming at him and turned with the movement and threw the man away from him. His eyes darted between the man that was still standing up and the one who was pulling himself up from the throw.

Both of them pulled out blades that Jesse didn’t recognize. He narrowed his eyes slightly and balled his hands into fists before he forced himself to relax. He took a slow breath and smirked. “Seems like the only one who’s hurt is your friend over there,” he said and rolled his shoulder in the general direction of the man he had knocked out.

The man farthest away from him started to sprint towards him which made him almost miss how the closest one move as if he intended to throw something. He rolled away and another three sounds of metal hitting rock sounded.

The sprinting man was quick by his side and stabbed towards his face. Jesse ducked to the side but grimaced when it nicked his cheek. He grabbed the man’s shirt and brought him down. Before he could knock him out, he was grabbed from behind and yanked away. He felt cold metal rest against his throat and a hiss in japanese.

“I’m sorry,” he began as he grabbed Peacekeeper and pulled it out of its holster, “but I don’t understand japanese.” The sound of a gunshot echoed through the small street and he felt the metal disappear and he was free to move again. He straightened up and pointed the gun at the man across him. The curses and a quick glance behind him told him that he had hit the man holding him in the stomach. He focused his eyes on the man in front of him.

“Listen up. Soon curious locals will come or they will have called the police. Not good for either of us. So let me give you a deal. You take your friends here and go away. And you’ll leave the town. That way, you’ll go free,” he said and he smiled with a confident smile. “If not, I’m afraid that I will have to kill you. What do you say?”

The man narrowed his eyes at him.

“And, if you wanna help your friend here, I think you should do it soon. Looks like he’s bleeding pretty bad,” Jesse added and the man tensed. Then he slowly nodded.

“Good. I’ll back up and you’ll collect your friends and move away. I will keep an eye out, so try not to follow. I’ll know if you do,” he said and slowly backed away.

He watched as the man checked on his wounded friend for a little bit before he turned away and let them be. He was not here to arrest them and he was sure that they wouldn’t follow him.

He looked towards the way Hanzo disappeared to and put away the gun. He set out towards the forest with hope that he would find Hanzo soon enough.

He listened to his surroundings as he left the town behind him and walked deeper into the forest.  It was unusual silent, which was a comfort in itself. It proved that no one was following him.

He let out a sigh and quickened this steps.

 

He had traveled for a few minutes when he heard the sound of struggle. The hope raised in his chest and he broke into a jog.

He got alarmed when he noticed Hanzo’s bag was discarded on the ground and with a quick scan of his surroundings, he saw Hanzo several meters away. He was holding a rather sturdy looking branch and with a wide stance. Jesse opened his mouth to call out but the words died on his tongue when he saw the creature that was in front of him. It was humanoid in its shape, but the size of it made it look like it didn't quite fit the skin. It swayed back and forth, rolled its shoulders, made jerky movements with its head and its fingers, that he could see even from this distance extend into claws, kept moving as if it was ready to strike. The green hair told him that it was the dragon, but as he got closer he could see how its features was distorted with fangs spourting out of the mouth and something resembling horns poking out of the forehead. Its skin seemed to flake and Jesse could see something green shimmering in a few spots.

Jesse slowed down and pulled out Peacekeeper as he regarded the dragon. His breath hitched when its eyes snapped over to him and it let out a low growl that made the hair stand on his arm.

"Stay back, Jesse! Do not harm it!" Hanzo called out as he raised the branch. The dragon turned its head back to Hanzo and let out a roar before it leaped against him.

"Watch out!" Jesse shouted and lifted his gun towards it. He hesitated and flinched when Hanzo hit the branch in the dragon's shoulder and side stepped it.

"Leave this to me! You can't do much here, just keep an eye out if anyone else is approaching!" he said over his shoulder without letting the dragon go with his eyes. The dragon let out growl as it turned towards Hanzo in a slow and wide motion, as if it expected the body to move differently.

Jesse bit the inside of his cheek but put the gun away and took a step back, carefully keeping an eye on the movements of the creature.

It lunged at him again and this time Hanzo rolled away and had to roll away again when the dragon made a quick follow up on the first attack. It hunched its back even more than before and it let out a roar and Jesse's eyes widened slightly as he heard the frustration in it. He took a look at Hanzo and saw a smirk grow on his lips. It was soon wiped away when the dragon lunged yet again and this time, it seemed to keep a higher pace than before.

They kept the strange dance up, the dragon attacking but Hanzo simply evading, or blocking it with the branch. And the more it got repeated, the dragon’s human features got more and more distorted, until it fell to it knees with a roar and the skin looked like it was being ripped apart in the seams. Out from the human body came something that was not humanoid at all. The body was long and sleek and green scales caught the sunlight. Two antlers poked out of its forehead and fur around its head made it look like it had a beard. And it did not look happy. It spoke with a deep voice, filled with anger and frustration, but Jesse understood none of them. Hanzo shouted something back to it and made a wide motion with his arms, but the dragon snarled something back before it shot its head at Hanzo with its mouth open. Hanzo reacted with holding the branch up and got pushed back with a grunt when the dragon collided with it.

“Fuck, Hanzo!” Jesse shouted and drew his gun when the dragon began lift Hanzo up by the branch.

“Don’t-!” Hanzo yelled but got thrown into a tree near Jesse and Jesse could hear the groan of pain.

“Fuck, fuck fuck,” Jesse cursed as he hurried over to him. Hanzo coughed and Jesse helped him up in a sitting position. He tensed when he saw movement in the corner of his eye and he raised his gun towards the dragon as he turned his attention to it. He gritted his teeth as it was too close for comfort. But it wasn’t attacking.

“Jesse, lower your fucking gun. It’s not gonna do anything against it,” Hanzo groaned and Jesse felt a hand grab his shoulder. The dragon made an expression that made it look like it sneered at him and it spoke again.

“Jesse,” Hanzo said again and tugged harder on his shoulder. Jesse lowered the gun slowly and followed with the movement. He glanced at Hanzo who nodded.

“Trust me, I know what I need to do,” he mumbled as he rose up to his feet. His movements were slow and careful but determined. “But I suggest you back up,” he added before he spoke to the dragon. The only word Jesse understood was when Hanzo said Genji’s name, and that seemed to anger the dragon more than it was before.

Jesse rolled away as Hanzo jumped out of the way when the dragon lunged at them. It immediately followed after Hanzo and the dance of the dragon attacking and Hanzo doding began again.

Jesse watched as Hanzo succeeded in putting more and more distance between himself and the dragon until he just stopped in one place and took something out of his pocket. Blue lightning covered his arm and Jesse could feel the charge in the air.

The dragon roared and lunged against Hanzo, the loud noise almost made Jesse miss how Hanzo shouted something as he made a slashing motion with the item in his left hand.

Jesse had barely blinked when it looked like he had ripped a wound in reality and out of the rift two gigantic blue dragons, similar and yet different in looks as the green dragon. The lighter blue one collided with the green one and Jesse had to hold down his hat. His eyes were wide and he watched as the darker blue dragon slithered around the green on and together with the light blue one, efficiently held down the green one. They spoke to the green one as it trashed and roared in their hold. The dark blue one shook its head before it turned towards Hanzo with a nod and a few words. Hanzo nodded back and looked through his pockets.

Jesse saw how he took out the box containing the pearl and then the pearl itself out of the box. The green dragon began to trash even more at the sight of the pearl and the blue dragons tightened their hold.

Hanzo turned the pearl towards the dragon and began shouting words that sounded like they were a part of a spell as he slowly approached. With each word and step, the green dragon became more transparent and panic seemed to overcome it. The dark blue dragon forced the green’s snout closer to the ground and held it in place as Hanzo approached. It let out a whine as it gave up, and Hanzo touched the pearl against it snout. Within the blink of an eye, the green dragon seemed to dissolve in small particles and got sucked into the pearl.

The air stood still as no one moved a muscle for a few seconds. Then Hanzo let out a relieved sigh and his shoulders slumped forward. The two dragons relaxed too and Jesse did a double take as one of the dragons began to purr. The light blue one said something to Hanzo and Hanzo nodded with a small smile.

Jesse cautiously stood up and approached Hanzo. He felt a bit unnerved when the lighter blue dragon turned its eyes towards him and followed him as he walked.

“They are goddamn impressive,” he said as he got close to Hanzo. “What you did was goddamn impressive. I know you told me about it before, but seeing it is another story.”

Hanzo let out a laugh as he put the pearl back into its box. “Yes. It’s impressive indeed.”

Jesse almost jumped when the two dragons pressed their snouts close to him and Hanzo and stared at him.

“Uh, hi?” he said and looked unsure at Hanzo. Hanzo looked amused.

“They are curious on you. Give them a scratch under their chins, they like that.”

Jesse did as he was told and started to grin when both of the dragons began to purr at the administration.

“Okay, back with you two now. I’ll introduce you three properly later. We need to go back to Genji,” Hanzo said after a few minutes. The dragons huffed and Jesse had to hold down his hat again so it wouldn’t fly away. Hanzo raised his left arm and the dragons pressed against it before they disappeared.

Jesse let out a whistle. “You’ll have to tell me how that works,” he said and walked by Hanzo’s side as he began to move.

“Another time, perhaps,” Hanzo said and the both made a brief stop so Hanzo could pick up his bag. “Did you take care of the clan members?”

Jesse nodded. “Yeah. Made sure that they wouldn’t follow, but had to let them run free. Couldn’t kill them right there, that would’ve scared the locals too much. Weren’t many places to hide the bodies either.”

Hanzo hummed and took a look at him. A small frown graces his features. “You are hurt.”

Jesse blinked and let out a small chuckle when he remembered the small wound on his cheek. “It’s nothin’ bad, Darlin’. It just nicked me. Had forgotten it up till now,” he said and touched said cheek. His had came back with a little bit of blood, but it was nothing alarming. “We’ll clean it by the car.” Then he turned to Hanzo. “And what about you? You got some nasty hits there.”

“They will merely turn into bruises. No wounds. Let’s hurry back to the car and get back to Genji,” Hanzo said with a shrug. Jesse agreed and both of them quickened their steps.

By the car they cleaned their wounds and made sure that nothing was badly hurt. Hanzo had just sat down at the driver’s seat and started driving when Jesse pulled out his phone. He dialed Gabriel and it didn’t take long for him to pick up.

“Good news, boss. We got it”

“ _ You caught it? Good, me and Ms. Vaswani will make sure that you can travel through the airport without trouble, _ ” Gabriel said and Jesse could hear the relief. Jesse looked at Hanzo and smiled.

“Yeah, thanks boss. We’re on our way,” he said and they canceled their call after some more few words. Jesse stared at the phone for a bit before he leaned over and gave Hanzo a kiss on the cheek.

“Let’s go and fix your brother up, shall we?” he said with a smile.

Hanzo smiled back. “Yes. Let’s do that.”


	11. Chapter 11

Jesse watched Hanzo as he stared at the pearl in his hands. He had been cradling the gem for an hour now with a blank face. He suspected that Hanzo hadn’t slept during the whole ride despite the fact that he told him to. He bumped his shoulder into Hanzo’s and gave him a soft smile when Hanzo glanced at him. He had looked tired when they had looked for the dragon, but now he looked downright exhausted.

“Hey there, Darlin’. Got any sleep?” he asked in a quiet voice. The quiet murmur of the bus told him that some people were awake but it was so peaceful that Jesse didn’t dare to speak any louder. At least they wouldn’t be overheard.

Hanzo leaned into the touch and let out a content sigh. “No. You fell asleep rather fast, so I thought it would be best that I would stay awake, in case someone sent by the clan was on here. And tried to take the pearl,” he mumbled as Jesse brought an arm around his shoulders and held him close. The pearl caught the light from the morning sun and Jesse couldn’t help but to think how pretty it was.

“I doubt that even if both of us were asleep, and there was a ninja aboard the bus, they would be able to take it silently from us. You got the box stuffed in the bag by our feet, which you covered with your jacket and you have a foot on it so you would feel it if someone tried to move it,” he said and motined towards said bag. Hanzo’s eyes sparkled with amusement and he shook his head.

“I don’t think the dragon would appreciate to be locked into a box for so long either,” he hummed and ran a thumb over the pearl’s surface.

“Now you're just makin’ excuses to hold it.”

“Perhaps.” Hanzo chuckled and Jesse rested his head on Hanzo’s shoulder.

“How does it feel, pumpkin? To have finally caught the dragon?” He felt Hanzo take a deep breath.

“It feels surreal. Finally I can save Genji,” he said and Jesse could hear the disbelieving but hopeful tone in the voice. He smiled big at that.

Neither of them spoke for some time but after Hanzo had yawned several times, Jesse straightened up.

“Get some sleep sweetpea, we’re still about an hour away. I’ll stay awake and keep an eye on the pearl,” he said and kissed Hanzo on the temple. Hanzo gave him a small, but warm, smile and Jesse could feel his heart melt.

“Thank you, koibito. I appreciate it,” he said and leaned forward to tuck the pearl away. Jesse watched as he put the pearl into its box and carefully covered it back up again. Soon enough Hanzo was upright again and was making himself comfortable.

“Sleep well, hannybee,” Jesse said and Hanzo let out a quiet snort.

“You won’t stop those nicknames, won’t you?” he said with no small amount of amusement.

“Nope. Better go to sleep sweetcheeks or I’ll just continue on,” he said with a big grin. Hanzo shook his head but a smile was on his lips.

Within a few minutes, Hanzo had fallen asleep. Jesse studied his face and how the light hit it. He hadn’t been this happy in quite a while. He took out his pad and started to read some of the articles he had missed reading. He still had to stay awake for a while.

  
  


When they had stepped off the bus, Gabriel and Ms. Vaswani had met up them. The grin Gabriel had when they told him that they had captured the dragon couldn’t had been bigger. Ms. Vaswani had seemed satisfied and led them to a room where Angela were preparing the ingredients for the cure.

Angela smiled bright when she saw them. “I heard the news! That’s good, since I think I’ve figured out how to reverse the curse,” she said and motioned towards the row of cauldrons and kettles. “The best bet would be to bathe him. Like, letting dirty plates soak so the dirt can be easily removed,” she said and started to walk towards another room. Jesse glanced at Hanzo as they followed her and saw him frown slightly.

“Not a fan of the words?” he asked with a small grin and Hanzo rolled his eyes. They soon entered a room which held a bathtub in the middle of it but there was not much else in there. The bathtub was slowly being filled with water and Angela went forward to it and dipped her fingers in it. She nodded in satisfaction and turned the crane off.

“That’s good. When we’re ready to put Genji into the bath, we’ll fill it up with the ingredients. So. How are we supposed to do this?” she asked and turned towards Hanzo.

Hanzo stared at the bathtub for a bit and Jesse wanted to reach out and rub his back but resisted the urge.

"So, a bath is all it takes?" Jesse asked when Hanzo seemed to deep in thought. Angela shook her head.

"No, we require a spell too. But without the bath, I'm sure that we would damage Genji in the process as he turned back. Now, Hanzo?"

"I'm not completely sure. I have never been present when the clan turned someone into porcelain dolls. Didn't happen that often. It happened once when I was very young, and now with Genji. But I do remember how they bond the dragons to Genji and I. I don't think it would be optimal to re-bond them while Genji are made of porcelain, he might break," he said and looked at Angela. She frowned slightly and hummed in thought.

"How come?"

"Being bond in the way this implies, means it will hurt. And because we are trying to put his mind back at the same time, it might hurt worse than before. But I'm not sure, I've never heard of anyone getting re-bond with their dragon," he said rubbed his beard.

"May I see the pearl?" Angela asked as she stepped closer. Hanzo looked hesitant but Jesse nudged his arm to catch his attention. When Hanzo looked at him, he gave him a reassuring smile and a nod. Hanzo gave a small smile in return before he rummaged through his bag. He took out the box and held it out to Angela.

"Thank you," she said and carefully took it from him. She inspected it for a bit before she gave it back.

"Interesting. It doesn't contain his soul, that one is still in his body, but it contains something more than simply the dragon. May I take a look on your pearl, Hanzo?" she asked with a curious look on her face.

Jesse could feel how Hanzo tensed up beside him so he reached out and slowly rubbed the base of his neck. Hanzo was slowly relaxing the longer he did it.

"Relax, Han. I think it would help her to see how it's supposed to look like. Right, Angie?" he said and looked at Angela. She gave them an odd look but slowly nodded.

"Very well," Hanzo said and shrugged off Jesse's hand. Jesse put his hands into his pockets and watched as Hanzo removed his jacket and then his tank top.

"That's some impressive tattoos," Gabriel said with a whistle.

"Curious. You have two pearls, not one," Ms. Vaswani said as she closed in at Hanzo. Jesse raised his hand and shook his head. She raised an eyebrow but stayed away.

"I have two dragons. Do not touch the pearls, the dragons do not like that," Hanzo said as Angela approached. She studied his back with a hand hovering above the tattoo and the pearls, but she listened to what Hanzo had said. Jesse watched her and he saw Hanzo's discomfort increase.

"Okay. I think I know how's everything is connected now. Please go and fetch Genji, I'll prepare the spell properly meantime. Hanzo, you prepare the union between the dragon and Genji again," she said as she straightened up and without another word walked out of the room.

Jesse barely spared her a glance and kept his focus on Hanzo as he put on the tank top and jacket again and visible relaxed with the layer of clothes on him.

"Let's get a move on. The sooner we do this, the better. Come on, mijo, let's go and fetch Genji," Gabriel said as he put a hand on Jesse's shoulder. Jesse nodded and followed him.

Before they walked out through the door, he spared a glance over his shoulder. Ms. Vaswani had walked to Hanzo and had begun a low conversation. He shook his head and focused on the task on hand.

They walked into the room where Genji was and Jesse was greeted by Zenyatta.

“Ah, greetings,” the monk said and Jesse grinned.

“Howdy. Everything going fine?” he asked as he stepped closer. Zenyatta nodded and moved one of his orbs over to Genji. It hang above Genji’s head but didn’t seem to really stuck.

“We got a plan now. We’re gonna move him and give him a bath before we can turn him back fully,” Gabriel said as he walked to Genji too.

“How wonderful,” Zenyatta said as the ord returned to him. “Let’s move him without his cracks getting worse.”

Carefully they arranged him onto a stretcher and as they moved towards the room where the bathtub was, people stopped and helped them when needed. Eventually they got into the room and Hanzo immediately came to their side.

“We are going the let Genji be in the bath for a bit before I try to re-bond him with his dragon. Less risk of hurting him more,” he said as he helped to undress Genji.

Jesse could see how used Hanzo was to do this. The clothes were easy enough to remove without moving Genji too much, which added to the feeling that Hanzo had mostly taken care of him by himself.

Hanzo frowned as he ran a hand over the tattoo and the cracks that ran along the back, his hands pausing at the hollow in the middle of his back.

"I have tried to keep the cracks from getting worse, but it has had mixed results," Zenyatta explained to Jesse and Gabriel as he threw back the orb that kept going back to him.

Hanzo shook his head and focused his eyes on Jesse. "Let's move him. We should be able to carry him better than if I were to do it alone," he said and Jesse nodded. Gabriel stepped closer but Hanzo shook his head at him.

"Two are enough." Gabriel raised his hands and stepped back. Jesse nodded towards Hanzo and without much communication, they both picked up Genji and carefully walked towards the bathtub. Jesse almost flinched at the sound when they lowered Genji into the water and he bumped into the walls of it. Hanzo didn't seem to like it either judging by his frown.

"You two seem to have gotten pretty in sync with each other," Gabriel said and Jesse looked at him. A smirk was tugging at the corner of his mouth and it only grew in size when Jesse threw a warning look at him.

"I'll go and get Ms. Ziegler and let her know that she can put the ingredients into the bath now," Zenyatta said and left the room. The orb soon disappeared into thin air and Jesse blinked at that.

"The orbs mostly stay only when Zenyatta are present," Hanzo explained and Jesse slowly nodded.

"You always learn something new. How long do you think he needs to be in the bath?" Gabriel asked and Hanzo shrugged.

"I'm not sure. But most likely a few hours," Hanzo said as he crossed his arms.

"Would you like to go and rest for a bit during that time?" Jesse asked and resisted the urge to nudge Hanzo, especially when a small frown appeared on his face.

"Jesse, I did-" he began as he turned towards him but his expression changed when he looked at him. "You know what? I would very much like to go and get some rest. It's been a long travel," he said and a smile tugged at his lips. Jesse smiled and felt his heart warm up with affection.

"Hm. You two can go and get some rest. I'll help Angela and Zenyatta with prepping the bath," Gabriel said with a grin. Jesse narrowed his at Gabriel but decided to not to question him.

He left the room with Hanzo after him and after asking around for a bit, they got shown to a guest room. It was simple room but the bed was big enough for the two of them, even if it was just barely.

Jesse dressed down to his tank top and his underwear before he laid down in the bed. He watched as Hanzo stepped out of his pants but let the jacket stay on.

"It's gonna be a bit uncomfortable to cuddle with a jacket," Jesse hummed as Hanzo climbed into the bed and pulled Jesse close to him.

"Until I have figured out a way for you not be ripped away from me when you touch my tattoos, we got to deal with it," Hanzo mumbled as he nuzzled his nose into Jesse's hair. Jesse smiled and let out a chuckle.

"If you say so, Darlin'," he said and let his body relax. Soon enough he had drifted into a peaceful rest.

  
  


They got woken up after a few hours and after they had dressed themselves they met up with the others in the room Genji was. There were a circle drawn around the bathtub and some light were placed evenly on the line.

"I hope your rest was good," Ms. Vaswani said and Jesse nodded.

"You got good beds here, Ms. Vaswani. Fell right asleep," he said with a grin and Hanzo hummed in agreement.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Angela said and motined towards Genji. Hanzo nodded and fetched the pearl.

Jesse caught Gabriel's eyes and Gabriel grinned big. He rolled his eyes and focused back on Hanzo. He was rolling up his pants and had removed the jacket, the box containing the pearl was by his feet.

Hanzo grimaced as he carefully pushed Genji up in a sitting position and stepped in behind him. "Can someone come and help me keeping Genji upright?" he asked and Jesse walked over.

"Thank you. Hold him across the chest and keep him slightly leaning forward. I need access to his back," Hanzo said with a nod and Jesse carefully did as he was told. He grimaced at the feeling of touching the skin. Unlike the feeling of touching porcelain from before, the skin now felt like a soggy sponge. Or a moss covered rotten log.

"I'm going to bound the dragon back to Genji, which would make him regain his soul and mind. I'm gonna try and keep him calm after that, but I do believe we need to be rather fast with that spell," Hanzo said and Jesse could thankfully focus on the conversation instead on the weird feeling.

"I agree on that. It should be easy enough, but both of you need to leave the circle just in case before I utter the spell," Angela said with a nod.

"Let's get this over with," Gabriel said and both Ms. Vaswani and Zenyatta agreed. An ord floated over to Genji and Jesse couldn't help but to smile at that.

Hanzo took a deep breath and Jesse smiled encouragingly at him.Hanzo gave a small smile back before he focused on the back in front of him. He reached over the edge of the tub and picked up the box which he simply threw away when he had retrieved the pearl.

He soon started to mumble in Japanese and the pearl in his hands reacted by glowing and Jesse had to keep his eyes on Hanzo's face when it felt like something was slowly entering the room. He could see Gabriel twitch and Ms. Vaswani move uncomfortably in the corner of his eyes.

Hanzo slowly began to move the pearl towards the hollow and the presence intensified. The shadows were moving and no sound was made beside Hanzo's mumbling, but he could feel something growling in his bones. His fingers twitched as he wished to reach for Peacekeeper but he kept holding onto Genji.

It all halted when the pearl made contact with the skin and a sucking noise was heard.

"Is it done?" Ms. Vaswani asked when nothing happened for some time.

"It's only beginning," Hanzo said as he rubbed Genji's back.

"That's not omnious at all," Gabriel muttered and Jesse couldn't help but to agree.

A few more seconds passed before Genji gasped and his eyes flew open. A gurgling sound escaped his throat as he stared blankly at Jesse and his mouth opened and closed. Then a scream, or something that sounded a bit more like a roar, came from him and he threw himself backwards and started to trash around. Hanzo caught Genji before he hurt himself against the edge but did nothing else to stop the trashing. He started to shout Genji's name along with other words as he held his brother without trapping him. The tub creaked and Jesse was worrying that it would break.

Just as soon as it had begun, Genji calmed down as his eyes seemed to fixate on Hanzo's face. His breath was laboured and with each breath a gurgling sound was heard, but not as severe as before. Hanzo was still talking to him with a very calm voice and stared right back at Genji.

"Okay, Ms. Ziegler. I think we can proceed," he eventually said as he straightened up. Jesse rose up and held out a hand for Hanzo. As Hanzo reached for it, Genji grabbed his other wrist and said something in a panicked voice. Hanzo stroke a hand through his hair and answered and stayed still until Genji nodded. Then he carefully took Jesse's hand and exited the tub and the circle.

"Do your thing, Doc," Gabriel said and Angela hurried forward. She smiled at Genji and gave him a wave when he stared at her. She started chanting when Genji kept calm.

Jesse watched with a mixture of caution and curiosity as he saw how color was slowly coming back to Genji's skin. Soon enough she was done and she carefully walked over to Genji. Jesse stayed back when Hanzo took quick steps towards the tub.

"Genji?" Hanzo said and Genji looked towards him. He mumbled something and Jesse could see the relief in Hanzo.

"Hanzo, please help me to get him out of the tub. I need to examine him," Angela said and with some protest, they had gotten him out of the bath. Zenyatta gave them some towels as they dried him off and kept him covered. Soon enough Angela shooed away Hanzo and Zenyatta took his place. Jesse chuckled as Hanzo came back to him with a small huff.

"So, what's the verdict, Doc?" Gabriel asked.

"From what I can see now, there aren't any serious injuries. Those cracks will leave serious scarring, but I don't think we should be too worried. But I need to properly check him in the medbay," she said with a nod. Genji said something and Hanzo snorted and shook his head.

"He's already himself," he said and Jesse raised an eyebrow.

"What did he say?"

"He asked her if she's an angel."

"I'll have you know that I'm not an angel, I'm a witch," Angela said as she patted his shoulder.

Jesse chuckled and watched as they carefully helped him into a robe.

"So. What you gonna do now, Han?" he asked and turned towards him.

"While Genji recovers, I'm going to serve through my punishment as it was agreed upon," Hanzo said and Jesse felt his heart sink a bit. He had forgotten about that.

"Oh."

"Ah, yes. Me and Mr. Reyes has spoken about what would be a good compensation," Ms. Vaswani said and Jesse turned towards her. Her face was set but Gabriel was grinning.

"We have agreed upon that you should work your punishment away. You have given us valuable information about the Shimada Clan which mean we will be able to deal with the underground dealings and black markets they control. You will help us take them down, and then you can consider you free from the crimes. As long as you keep in touch with our organisation," she continued and Gabriel nodded.

"We could always use a hunter of your caliber," he added and Jesse stared at him.

"Noted," Hanzo said and turned towards Jesse. "It seems like we'll be keeping in touch," he said and a smile tugged at his lips.

"That's good," Jesse said and he couldn't hide his smile. Some japanese words was thrown into the air and Hanzo's cheeks reddened. Hanzo shouted right back and rubbed his face. Jesse glanced over to Angela, Zenyatta and Genji to see Genji have a shiteating grin.

"Do I want to know what he said?" Jesse asked cautiously as he turned his attention back to Hanzo and Hanzo shook his head. "Well then, I ain't gonna ask," he said and grinned.

"Hey, boss, I think I stay around here for a bit. Help around and such," he said as he bumped his shoulder into Hanzo's.

Gabriel let out a laugh. "I suspected that kid. Just give me a howl when you're coming back."

Jesse and Hanzo smiled at each other. This was gonna be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! It has been wonderful to work on this project and I'm very proud of it! Again, thank you so much to CorvidFightClub for helping me with the story, to everyone hosting the event and everyone participating! I had a very good time! Now, onto the next project!


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